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Paradigm Pressroom’s 5 Bullets is a daily e-letter covering the economy and the markets, reaching 120,000 paying subscribers of the renowned financial publishing firm Paradigm Press.

Paradigm Pressroom's 5 Bullets

James Altucher has regrets: Buying Bitcoin at $114, instead of $10. “I just made the exact same mistake with quantum computing,” James confesses now.

Regrets, He’s Had a Few

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1_2x-new.png 2x" alt="1" width="37" />Tesla Takedown
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Whether you&rsquo;re aware of it or not, this coming Saturday is billed on social media as a &ldquo;Tesla Takedown global day of action.&rdquo;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/7iTVnpdjI7Yi1DbvK0OWOd/36db855804eede601ffcce2763ad6cd0/tesla_takedown.jpg" alt="Tesla Takedown" />
No, there&rsquo;s nothing in there threatening violence or vandalism. But three days ago, the FBI confirmed it&rsquo;s set up a &ldquo;task force&rdquo; to look into a series of vandalism and arson cases targeting Tesla. Surely you&rsquo;ve heard about some of them by now.
How did we get here?
The liberal pushback against Elon Musk and the DOGE boys began quietly enough last month &mdash; with sparsely attended protests outside Tesla dealerships.
There were also performative acts of protest like the singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow selling her Tesla and donating the proceeds&hellip; not to the poor, but rather to NPR. Priorities.
As February turned to March, people began committing scattered acts of vandalism &mdash; dealerships, charging stations, and yes, individuals&rsquo; cars. You can readily find videos on social media &mdash; some posted by victims who had surveillance footage (Teslas are equipped with cameras on all sides), others by the vandals who were proud of what they did.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;EVERYTHING is political now,&rdquo; your editor lamented one day in 2020.
At the time, scads of brand-name advertisers like Coca-Cola were bowing to pressure from the left and pausing their advertising on social media because platforms like Facebook and Twitter were supposedly hotbeds of &ldquo;hate speech&rdquo; and &ldquo;misinformation.&rdquo; Facebook&rsquo;s share price took a dive.
It was a perilous moment for world-class brands.
It was no longer 1989 when Coca-Cola apologized for airing a Coke spot during a raunchy episode of the sitcom Married&hellip; With Children. No one stopped buying Coke as a consequence.
It was no longer 2009 when Procter &amp; Gamble bailed from Glenn Beck&rsquo;s daily show on Fox News because Beck labeled Barack Obama a &ldquo;racist.&rdquo; No one stopped buying Crest as a consequence.
But by 2020, it was no longer possible for world-class brands to be all things to all people.
For a few weeks in late 2024, it seemed as if the polarizing atmosphere might be abating and the culture would settle into a new normal. There was no doubt about who won the presidential election. Many corporations were retreating from their &ldquo;DEI&rdquo; initiatives.
But that&rsquo;s not how it&rsquo;s working out now.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/78NqyEGnR4Zy2gLO29s8yd/98a3665656a47d3384c68a481a001a29/liberals_meme.png" alt="liberals meme" width="450px" />
Indeed, we&rsquo;re approaching the scenario painted by the intriguing John Robb, keeper of the Global Guerrillas page on Substack: &ldquo;Imagine a world where every corporation aligns with a politicized tribal network, breaking the commercial market into two or more balkanized zones, divided by by consumer preference, supply networks, social networks, news coverage, government cooperation, etc.&rdquo;
(What does it mean for Tesla&rsquo;s share price right now? More about that in today&rsquo;s Bullet No. 3)...
As noted above, the incidents have attracted the interest of the feds. A week ago today, the Justice Department announced charges against three people in South Carolina, Colorado and Oregon.
On the one hand, it serves as a convenient culture-war distraction for the Trump administration&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/3Fv49xzBUsbOI5jBfLWOsq/78d7c12bb8bdf0c23b6314e21e936afa/epstein_meme.png" alt="epstein Meme" width="450px" />
But on the other hand, it&rsquo;s problematic on several levels for the feds to be poking their nose into this thing.
If they&rsquo;re not careful, they&rsquo;re going to trash the Constitution just so they can own the libs. Read on&hellip;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2_2x-new.png 2x" alt="2" width="37" />Who Are the &ldquo;Domestic Terrorists&rdquo; Now?
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Let&rsquo;s start with the president&rsquo;s March 11 statement on his Truth Social site&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/323lZJbWYNDUE81nUFymQZ/b5f810d03b35d153cd25e8d8013eb1b2/trump_tweet.png" alt="Trump Truth Social" />
OK, so he&rsquo;s not saying anything here about acts of property destruction. He&rsquo;s denouncing mere boycotts as &ldquo;illegal and collusive.&rdquo;
Huh?
This is America. People have the right to not buy stuff. Furthermore, they have the right to persuade other people to not buy stuff if they object to the conduct of the company or its officers or even a random employee. It&rsquo;s called the free market, and it&rsquo;s called free speech.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Going by Trump&rsquo;s logic, it&rsquo;s easy to imagine the shoe on the other foot in an alternative timeline.
Recall last year&rsquo;s campaigns by conservative activists Robby Starbuck and Christopher Rufo &mdash; successfully pressuring the likes of Walmart and Ford to abandon various &ldquo;woke&rdquo; endeavors.
In retrospect, it wouldn&rsquo;t have been hard for a creative prosecutor at Joe Biden&rsquo;s Justice Department to charge them with &mdash; well, nearly anything. Violations of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racketeer_Influenced_and_Corrupt_Organizations_Act" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the RICO statutes</a> or maybe &ldquo;false statements&rdquo; or &ldquo;obstructing the mails.&rdquo;
Thank God that didn&rsquo;t happen. Let&rsquo;s pray for the sake of the rule of law that it doesn&rsquo;t happen with peaceful protests of Tesla, either.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />As for the less-than-peaceful protests&hellip; are they really a federal case?
Sure doesn&rsquo;t sound like it with the three federal prosecutions so far &mdash; Molotov cocktails hurled at either Tesla dealerships or Tesla vehicles.
Attorney General Pam Bondi says she&rsquo;s investigating whether anyone is &ldquo;operating behind the scenes to coordinate and fund these crimes.&rdquo; Assuming the planning occurs across state lines, that&rsquo;s fair game for the feds. But that&rsquo;s not emerged in the cases to date. And there&rsquo;ve been several similar incidents that for whatever reason Bondi chose to leave to local prosecutors.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />More troubling is Bondi labeling the acts of property destruction as &ldquo;domestic terrorism.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Let this be a warning,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;if you join this wave of domestic terrorism against Tesla properties, the Department of Justice will put you behind bars.&rdquo;
We just got through four years of Democrats overreacting to the events of Jan. 6, 2021 &mdash; throwing the book at anyone caught on camera merely walking politely between the velvet ropes inside the U.S. Capitol.
In 2022, the Biden administration was receptive to a plea from the National School Boards Association, characterizing angry parents at local school board meetings as &ldquo;domestic terrorists.&rdquo;
Ahead of Election Day last year, Homeland Security and the FBI issued an intelligence bulletin warning about &ldquo;domestic violent extremists with election-related grievances.&rdquo;
Of course, there were plenty of angry attendees at school board meetings and people with &ldquo;election-related grievances&rdquo; who had no violent or destructive intentions. But just their opinions put them potentially on the feds&rsquo; radar.
There&rsquo;s a slippery slope here &mdash; when government officials conflate legitimate protest with acts of property destruction.
Prosecute those acts of destruction, yes &mdash; preferably at the local level. But don&rsquo;t concoct a farrago of bogus federal charges and weaponize the justice system against people for having the &ldquo;wrong&rdquo; opinions.
Any more of it from this administration and I guarantee it will absolutely blow back on conservatives the next time a Democratic administration is in power.
We&rsquo;ll leave the subject there for today. I promised earlier we&rsquo;d take a look at how the protests and vandalism are affecting the investment prospects of Tesla stock. Here&rsquo;s Emily with the rest of today&rsquo;s 5 Bullets&hellip;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3_2x-new.png 2x" alt="3" width="37" />Tesla: Don&rsquo;t &ldquo;Sell the News&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;Many of the strongest-performing names since November sustained the biggest drawdowns over the past five weeks&hellip; Tesla (TSLA) is the perfect example,&rdquo; says Paradigm&rsquo;s chart hound Greg Guenthner.
&ldquo;Shares broke out above the critical $270 level immediately after the election, soaring more than 80% over the next month to fresh all-time highs.
&ldquo;But the news quickly turned against Elon and his flagship public company,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;You couldn&rsquo;t avoid the anti-Tesla sentiment &mdash; it was everywhere.
&ldquo;Protesters of Elon&rsquo;s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) took to the streets, with some even vandalizing Teslas and setting fire to dealerships.
&ldquo;Former VP candidate Tim Walz also took a public jab at Elon, pulling out his phone to mock TSLA&rsquo;s sinking share price at a rally last week.
&ldquo;The stock suddenly topped out in December,&rdquo; Greg notes, &ldquo;giving back all its post-election gains into the Q1 broad market pullback.&rdquo;
Greg calls it &ldquo;spite selling,&rdquo; in fact. &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t get me wrong,&rdquo; he adds, &ldquo;there are plenty of legitimate fundamental concerns about TSLA.&rdquo;
However&hellip;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;When the selling becomes completely detached from reality, it&rsquo;s a good idea to lean hard in the opposite direction,&rdquo; says Greg.
&ldquo;That&rsquo;s exactly what happened with TSLA. The stock started to rally late last week, posting a three-day winning streak culminating with Friday&rsquo;s 5% gain.
&ldquo;Buyers turned up the heat to begin the new trading week, sending TSLA higher by nearly 12%.
&ldquo;The stock that no one wanted to own just a week ago was Monday&rsquo;s strongest-performing component in the S&amp;P 500 and Nasdaq-100.
&ldquo;Sentiment had clearly become too stretched,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;With no one left to sell, Tesla shares are now back above $270 and in a prime position to extend higher.
&ldquo;Tesla wasn&rsquo;t the only beaten-down stock that started rallying at the beginning of the week&hellip;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;I know conditions aren&rsquo;t perfect. You might even have some serious reservations,&rdquo; says Greg.
&ldquo;But here&rsquo;s the thing: We don&rsquo;t need the stock market to rush back to all-time highs to make money.
&ldquo;Just know that relief rallies can be powerful moneymaking opportunities,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Instead of hiding under a rock, [investors] should be actively looking to buy beaten-down names this week.
&ldquo;Shut out the negative news&hellip; Right now, there&rsquo;s an opportunity to get tactical.
&ldquo;A quick screen of the best performers to start the week reveals plenty of software companies, chip stocks and other household names that are ready to launch.
&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t let them pass you by,&rdquo; Greg cautions.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Whaddya know: TSLA shares are up 4.15% today&hellip; 
That said, the three major U.S. stock indexes are in the red; the Dow, in fact, has lost 0.30% to 42,320. At the same time, the tech-heavy Nasdaq is down 0.15% to 17,870 while the S&amp;P 500 is down 0.10% to 5,700.
Turning to the commodities complex, crude is barely in the green, $0.30 under $70 for a barrel of WTI. Precious metals? Both rallying. Gold is up 1.40% to $3,065 per ounce, and silver is up 2.6% to $35.10.
Bitcoin and Ethereum &mdash; also in the green. Bitcoin is up 0.85% to $87,140, and Ethereum is up 0.65% to $2,010.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4_2x-new.png 2x" alt="4" width="37" />Move Over, Hockey!
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Canada's latest sports craze is getting served a slice of tariff drama.
Pickleball &mdash; the lovechild of tennis, badminton and table tennis &mdash; is the fastest-growing sport in North America. But now, pickleballers&rsquo; paddles are caught in the crossfire of a U.S.-Canada trade tiff.
Thanks to a 25% tariff slapped on U.S.-made paddles. But some savvy sellers are already plotting to ditch Uncle Sam and cozy up to China for their paddle fix.
For instance, Cara Arding, an online pickleball-equipment purveyor, is working directly with Chinese factories to create homegrown (sort of) Canadian paddles &mdash; meaning, designed in Canada and made in China.
Meanwhile, budget-conscious pickleballers are eyeing cheap online retailers including Chinese companies AliExpress and Temu.
But buyer beware: Not all paddles are created equal in the eyes of <a href="https://pickleballcanada.org/tournaments/approved-paddles-and-balls/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pickleball Canada.</a> So, before you go swinging that bargain-bin special, make sure it&rsquo;s got the official stamp of approval.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5_2x-new.png 2x" alt="5" width="37" />Mailbag: Economics and Ethics
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Readers respond passionately to Tuesday&rsquo;s controversial, <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/the-new-miserables" target="_blank" rel="noopener">single-topic 5 Bullets,</a> offering diverse opinions on the relationship between economic hardship and moral decision-making&hellip; 
&ldquo;People in financial distress often make bad decisions because they are so consumed with short-term goals &mdash; i.e. just surviving the day on limited resources &mdash; that they don&rsquo;t think about future consequences,&rdquo; affirms one longtime reader.
Another laments &ldquo;how often people get hopelessly in debt. Unfortunately, it&rsquo;s a sad commentary on our society.&rdquo; Writes another: &ldquo;Everybody has a breaking point. That does not mean they are career criminals.&rdquo;
Not all readers, however, were sympathetic to the economic-anxiety argument. One contributor says firmly: &ldquo;There is no excuse for bad behavior. Throughout history, people did without, but that didn&rsquo;t necessarily lead to immoral actions.&rdquo;
Instead, she blames &ldquo;the culture of immediate gratification&hellip; People expect to have everything the minute they graduate from high school.&rdquo;
One contributor offers wisdom from The Good Book: &ldquo;Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread&hellip; Or I may become poor and steal. (Prov. 30: 8-9, NIV).&rdquo;
Also getting biblical, a reader suggests a more radical solution, including &ldquo;a world jubilee of debt forgiveness&rdquo; as a potential remedy for global economic problems. And he advocates for &ldquo;the elimination of the Federal Reserve and the IRS while gathering revenue via a national sales tax.&rdquo;
Finally, the article &mdash; and its allusion to Les Miserables &mdash; seemed to resonate with readers. One mentioned getting &ldquo;shivers up my spine&rdquo; from the comparison. While another contributor described it as &ldquo;nothing short of profound and sobering, from beginning to end.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a keeper,&rdquo; he adds.
Thanks for hanging in there, reader, for our unusual 5 Bullets today! And take care&hellip;

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Whether you’re aware of it or not, this coming Saturday is billed on social media as a “Tesla Takedown global day of action.” 

#TeslaTakedown

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1_2x-new.png 2x" alt="1" width="37" />The New Miserables
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Victor Hugo&rsquo;s masterpiece, Les Miserables, illustrates a timeless truth: Economic anxiety is a force so powerful it drives ordinary people to extreme measures. 
Jean Valjean grabs a loaf of stolen bread, haunted by the image of his sister&rsquo;s starving children&hellip; 
A man in a MAGA hat clutches a flagpole, his &ldquo;nonessential&rdquo; small business having barely survived pandemic lockdowns&hellip; 
An Amazon driver grips a steering wheel, his attention focused on the clock and the endless round of deliveries ahead&hellip;
Today, the echoes of Valjean&rsquo;s dilemma &mdash; frozen on the page &mdash; resonate with alarming clarity; in a nation grappling with financial insecurity, Americans are at loose ends&hellip;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Sixty-five percent of Americans earning between $50,000&ndash;100,000 report living paycheck-to-paycheck, according to a December 2024 PYMNTS Intelligence report.
While 33% of those surveyed routinely skip monthly payments, the same report cites (1) insufficient income and (2) high debt burdens as top-tier financial stressors.
Incidentally, 2023 and 2024 data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the U.S. Census Bureau now calculates that, on average, each U.S. household carries $8,674 in credit card debt.
Plus, a 2022 KFF Health Care Debt Survey finds that 41% of U.S. adults currently have some debt caused by medical or dental bills.
This as the cost of essentials including health care, groceries and housing have far outpaced wage growth. A single medical emergency, in fact, can plunge a family into financial ruin.
Despite Obamacare, 66% of all U.S. bankruptcies are directly linked to health care costs.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2_2x-new.png 2x" alt="2" width="37" />Almost No One Is Immune
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Even America&rsquo;s top earners are feeling the undercurrent of financial insecurity, a reality that challenges the perception of economic stability among high-income groups.
Among this group &mdash; earning more than $100,000 annually &mdash; 48% report they are living paycheck-to-paycheck, per PYMNTS.
And a YouGov study reveals that 30% of Americans in this same income category say they are just getting by, while 12% struggle to meet all their financial obligations.
It follows, then, that consumer confidence is faltering across all income levels, with affluent households no exception.
Spending on luxury goods has dropped nearly 10% year-over-year. Airlines like Delta and JetBlue have revised their financial outlooks downward, citing reduced demand for air travel &mdash; a further indication of belt-tightening.
Even retirement planning feels precarious for high earners; one in five doubts their ability to afford retirement.
These trends expose a striking reality: Economic uncertainty is pervasive, affecting Americans across almost every income level.
And because Americans are at loose ends, the social fabric is fraying&hellip;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3_2x-new.png 2x" alt="3" width="37" />Just Your Ordinary J6 Protester
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />We return, thus, to the typical MAGA-emblazoned, flag-waving protester on Jan. 6, 2021. 
Regardless of your opinion of events that day, our managing editor Dave Gonigam argued one compelling point on Jan. 7&hellip;
<blockquote>We stick to our <a href="https://5minforecast.com/2021/01/07/a-riot-by-another-name/">thesis</a> that it&rsquo;s underlying economic anxiety that&rsquo;s brought us to this juncture &mdash; and especially the Federal Reserve&rsquo;s policies that have so enriched the elite one-tenth of one percent while the bottom 90% are losing ground.</blockquote>
Over a month later, on Feb. 10, 2021, The Washington Post reached a similar conclusion.
&ldquo;Exclusive&rdquo; analysis of 125 Capitol riot defendants uncovered a pattern of financial hardship among those charged.
<ul>
<li>The investigation revealed nearly 60% of the defendants had experienced significant money troubles in the past two decades</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Notably, the bankruptcy rate among this group was 18% &mdash; about twice the national average</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Furthermore, 25% of the defendants had faced lawsuits for unpaid debts, while 20% had confronted the possibility of home foreclosure at some point.</li>
</ul>
On the other hand, WaPo says: &ldquo;Business owners and white-collar workers made up 40% of the people accused of taking part&hellip; Only 9% appeared to be unemployed.&rdquo; In fact, many were middle-class professionals &mdash; &ldquo;few with violent criminal histories.&rdquo;
But widespread economic anxiety, coupled with eroding trust in institutions, create a volatile mix that threatens social stability.
Which leads to a more recent, more granular example&hellip;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4_2x-new.png 2x" alt="4" width="37" />Driven to Extremes
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;How did you manage to get hit?&rdquo; That&rsquo;s the chilling question a 26-year-old Amazon driver allegedly asked a woman lying prone on a Baltimore street last month &mdash; after he struck her with his delivery truck.
The incident, captured by a doorbell camera, then shows the driver get back behind the wheel. And drive away&hellip; His actions? Morally indefensible. But financial pressures might offer some critical context.
The alleged hit-and-run driver was a third-party Amazon &ldquo;Delivery Service Partner (DSP)&rdquo; &mdash; generally, a member of the &ldquo;gig&rdquo; workforce with no benefits (i.e. health insurance, paid leave, etc.) &mdash; whereby delivery quotas often prioritize speed over safety.
About these DSP workers, a <a href="https://www.quora.com/Does-Amazon-actually-employ-any-delivery-drivers-Does-Amazon-use-DSPs-to-circumvent-labor-laws" target="_blank" rel="noopener">post</a> at the Q&amp;A website Quora says: &ldquo;They wear [an Amazon] uniform and drive a branded Amazon van most of the time&hellip; A lot of behind the scenes stuff that occurs will make you worry all the time if you are going to keep your job.&rdquo;
According to a 2021 article at trade publication Official Mail Guide, 14-hour shifts are not uncommon for these drivers because they&rsquo;re not allowed to return undelivered packages from their routes.
Drivers, who are frequently expected to deliver close to 400 packages daily, typically earn between $37,881 and $42,203 per year.
Which, admittedly, doesn&rsquo;t leave a lot of margin after paying for inflation-boosted expenses including rent, food, utilities and car insurance. (Not to mention uninsured visits to the doctor or ER.)
The fictional Jean Valjean? Shares a common thread with the Jan. 6 rioter and the Amazon driver in Baltimore city.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Whether it manifests as petty theft, civil unrest or even the most callous negligence, pervasive financial insecurity can erode moral boundaries and destabilize social norms across time and class lines.
In the United States today, economic anxiety doesn&rsquo;t just affect bank accounts. It impacts decision-making abilities and our overall health. Prolonged financial insecurity can lead to depression, health issues like heart disease and obesity&hellip; and, at the very worst, aptly named <a href="https://5minforecast.com/2023/01/20/no-family-no-faith-no-freedom/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&ldquo;deaths of despair.&rdquo;</a>
The full impact remains to be seen, but rising costs, wage stagnation and growing debt burdens affect not just individuals but entire communities and institutions.
While it&rsquo;s abundantly clear that economic anxiety is a force capable of driving ordinary people to extraordinary extremes, it&rsquo;s also a force capable of reshaping American society.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5_2x-new.png 2x" alt="5" width="37" />It&rsquo;s Worse Than You Think?
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;Consumer confidence plummets to lowest level since January 2021,&rdquo; a CNN headline declares. In one respect, it&rsquo;s actually worse than that&hellip; 
According to the Conference Board&rsquo;s March survey, its Consumer Confidence Index fell 7.2 points to a reading of 92.9. The decline was driven by a significant drop in the Expectations Index, which gauges future economic prospects &mdash; which fell to 65.2, the lowest level in 12 years. 
The mix of slowing growth and rising prices? Starting to look a lot like &ldquo;stagflation&rdquo;...
Turning to the market, the script has flipped since yesterday. Whereas the sentiment was mostly bullish on Monday, investors are in a risk-off frame of mind today.
One noteworthy exception being the tech-heavy Nasdaq, up about 0.20% to 18,225. At the same time, the Dow is down 0.10% to 42,530 as the S&amp;P 500 is treading water at 5,765.
As for commodities, it&rsquo;s a mixed bag. Crude is down 0.55% to $68.73 for a barrel of WTI. Precious metals, meanwhile, are in the green. The yellow metal is up 0.45% to $3,028.70 per ounce while silver is up an impressive 2.25% to $34.20.
Crypto, you wonder? Bitcoin is down 0.60% to $87,675, and Ethereum is down 1.30% to $2,060.
With that, we&rsquo;ll bid you farewell today. But join us for another round of 5 Bullets tomorrow&hellip;

shutterstock 1684749883 (1)

Victor Hugo’s masterpiece illustrates a timeless truth: Economic anxiety is a force so powerful it drives ordinary people to extreme measures. 

The New Miserables

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1_2x-new.png 2x" alt="1" width="37" />Overreaction Much?
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />To be sure, it&rsquo;s not just tariff twitchiness that&rsquo;s dragging down the stock market this year.
There&rsquo;s also apprehension that the AI boom got too far out over its skis.
The Paradigm Press analysts have been in the forefront of warning since late last year that you can no longer hold Nvidia or a basket of mega-cap tech stocks (the &ldquo;Magnificent 7&rdquo;) and expect to generate consistent, outsized gains.
Indeed our trading pro Enrique Abeyta warned NVDA would see its market cap slashed by $1 trillion sometime in 2025 &mdash; which is exactly what happened between early January and early March.
AI is still lucrative and world-changing. But going forward, you&rsquo;ll have to be much more selective with how you play the trend. Nvidia won&rsquo;t cut it anymore. (Indeed, <a href="https://pro.paradigm-press.info/m/2426764">Enrique is tipping off readers to a &ldquo;Nvidia killer&rdquo;</a> lurking in the midst.)

<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Furthermore, the AI sector is now prone to hasty sell-offs for no good reason &mdash; which opens up opportunities to buy quality AI stocks at bargain prices.
Example: In late February the investment bank TD Cowen said Microsoft was canceling leases for a substantial number of its U.S. data centers, totaling &ldquo;a couple of hundred megawatts&rdquo; of capacity.
Which was true as far as it went. What was already a steep sell-off in the tech sector that month became a rout.
But that wasn&rsquo;t the whole story: &ldquo;Microsoft came out and said that while it may move its capital allocations in the data center business, overall levels of investment remained the same,&rdquo; Enrique tells us.
&ldquo;And this is after the company raised its capital expenditure guidance for 2025 when it reported in January.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Go figure: Last week the same Wall Street firm issued a new research note about the same company&hellip; generating the same overreaction.
On Wednesday, TD Cowen said Microsoft had stepped away from two data center projects &mdash; one in the United States, another in Europe.
Once again, tech stocks were overwhelmed with a wave of selling. Once again, it wasn&rsquo;t the whole story.
&ldquo;This time,&rdquo; Enrique tells us, &ldquo;further clarification came out that two other large data center operators (Alphabet and Meta) would take the capacity that Microsoft was not going to use.
&ldquo;So yes, one of the Big Tech companies is switching up its AI data center investments. But for now, overall spending isn&rsquo;t changing. And other major tech companies are more than happy to take the data center capacity that Microsoft doesn&rsquo;t want anymore.
&ldquo;Ultimately, this news does not signal an end to the AI bubble; it just shows that the investment cycle is entering its next stage &mdash; one where we will see investment growth move away from the early leaders like Nvidia and into others, like Amazon and Elon Musk&rsquo;s businesses.&rdquo;
Of course, Musk&rsquo;s AI-related businesses aren&rsquo;t publicly traded. And Enrique says there are better AI bargains for your money right now than Amazon.
He&rsquo;s laid out three of &rsquo;em in a series of special reports delivered to anyone who subscribes to his new newsletter called Breaking Profits.

Worth noting: Breaking Profits is not a high-end trading advisory costing four figures. If you&rsquo;ve been reading Enrique&rsquo;s comments in our virtual pages the last few months, curious to learn more about his research and recommendations&hellip; well, now&rsquo;s your chance to access them and learn about the fine art of trading at a truly affordable price.
<a href="https://pro.paradigm-press.info/m/2426764">Click here and check out his new presentation called &ldquo;The Nvidia Killer&rdquo; &mdash; and yes, if you wait a few moments after pressing &ldquo;play,&rdquo; you&rsquo;ll get an option to read the transcript</a>.

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2_2x-new.png 2x" alt="2" width="37" />Countdown to &ldquo;Liberation Day&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Tomorrow&rsquo;s the day we&rsquo;re supposed to finally learn the scope and scale of the Trump administration&rsquo;s tariffs &mdash; or as the president styles it, &ldquo;Liberation Day.&rdquo;
Yesterday he said he&rsquo;d &ldquo;settled&rdquo; on what the tariff package will consist of &mdash; but he didn&rsquo;t tip his hand about any details. If The Wall Street Journal is to be believed, &ldquo;Trump&rsquo;s comments that he had decided on an approach caught some White House advisers off guard.&rdquo;
Perhaps not surprisingly, the online rumor mill is quickly spinning out of control.
On one Substack page we&rsquo;re told that &ldquo;Liberation Day&rdquo; will go far beyond mere tariffs and mark the advent of a new and improved U.S. dollar&hellip;
<blockquote>Those who believe that either a revaluation of gold (as was done in 1934 with the Gold Reserve Act), or the issuance of a new currency backed by a diverse basket of commodities and assets such as gold, other natural resources and cryptocurrencies, are in the camp that &ldquo;Liberation Day&rdquo; will signal the end of the &ldquo;Federal Reserve Note&rdquo; with the withdrawal/removal of (FRN/USD) for exchange to the new rumored &ldquo;Treasury Dollar&rdquo; aka United States Treasury Note (USTN) also sometimes called the &ldquo;Rainbow Currency&rdquo; by those who believe in this theory of an overdue currency reset and global forex revalutions (RV).</blockquote>
It seems fanboys have even come up with designs for these &ldquo;USTNs&rdquo;...
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/2QPYy26n1TluUuP3qkxw6Q/d08af1d586370514998ca81925c27ea3/USTN.jpg" alt="USTN" width="540px" />
Seriously? I haven&rsquo;t seen this level of unhinged wishcasting since <a href="https://5minforecast.com/2023/04/04/sandman-dollar-demolition-plot/">the &ldquo;Operation Sandman&rdquo; rumors</a> around this time two years ago.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Wall Street is treading water ahead of tomorrow&rsquo;s announcement.
By day&rsquo;s end yesterday, the S&amp;P 500 recovered its early-day losses. At last check today it&rsquo;s up a quarter percent to 5,626.
Colleague Sean Ring doesn&rsquo;t like the price action &mdash; anticipating a further decline to 5,350. And even that level might not hold. &ldquo;If we don&rsquo;t stop there, we&rsquo;ll head towards the 5,100/5,000 level.&rdquo; (You can see Sean&rsquo;s chart-heavy monthly rundown of every major asset class in <a href="https://rudeawakening.info/posts/gold-to-the-moon-crypto-to-the-morgue">today&rsquo;s </a><a href="https://rudeawakening.info/posts/gold-to-the-moon-crypto-to-the-morgue">Rude Awakening</a>.)
Gold is holding onto most of yesterday&rsquo;s gains at $3,126. But $34 is proving to be a stubborn ceiling for silver to break through.
Crude is little changed at $71.48 a barrel. Bitcoin is stuck in the mud a little under $85,000.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> So much for the manufacturing revival.
The lone economic number of note today is the March ISM manufacturing index &mdash; which is back in sub-50 territory, suggesting the U.S. factory sector is shrinking.
This index spent nearly all of 2023 and 2024 under 50, finally moving back into growth territory in January and February. But no more. The March reading is 49.0, down from 50.3 in February.
All the internals of the survey are moving in the wrong direction. The &ldquo;new orders&rdquo; component of the index fell sharply from 48.6 to 45.2. It seems anyone who was loading up on inventory ahead of new tariffs already did so early in the year.
On the flip side, the &ldquo;prices paid&rdquo; component suggests inflation is screaming higher, rising from 62.4 to 69.4. In other words, anyone who hadn&rsquo;t yet loaded up on inventory ahead of new tariffs had to pay through the nose for tight supplies.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3_2x-new.png 2x" alt="3" width="37" />The Fed Is Losing Money&hellip; and We&rsquo;ll Survive
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> And now for a little myth-busting: It&rsquo;s not the end of the world that the Federal Reserve is losing money &mdash; not according to Paradigm&rsquo;s macroeconomics maven Jim Rickards.
&ldquo;The Federal Reserve lost $77.6 billion in 2024,&rdquo; says an article by gold expert Mike Maharrey that went semi-viral last week.
Typically, the Fed books a profit on its operations &mdash; but that&rsquo;s not been the case since late 2022, the year the Fed began jacking up short-term interest rates at the fastest pace in 40 years.
&ldquo;In simplest terms, as it hiked rates, the bank had to pay commercial banks more for the money they parked at the Fed,&rdquo; Maharrey writes. &ldquo;Meanwhile, its interest income remained static as the Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities on its balance sheet continued to yield lower interest income. From there, it&rsquo;s a simple math problem.&rdquo;
As Maharrey sees it, the Fed&rsquo;s math problem translates to a loss for the U.S. Treasury &mdash; and a wider budget deficit that has to be covered by either higher taxes or (more likely) inflating the currency.
&ldquo;You will ultimately feel the pain,&rdquo; he writes, &ldquo;because you (the taxpayer) are going to foot the bill.&rdquo;
Mr. Maharrey has been a leading figure in the precious metals space for a couple of decades now; we have great respect for him around here. But in this instance, our Jim Rickards says he&rsquo;s off the mark.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />A reader of Rickards&rsquo; Strategic Intelligence wrote to Jim last week about this very subject: &ldquo;When the Fed operates at a loss, is it a problem for the Treasury and taxpayers?&rdquo;
Jim&rsquo;s reply: &ldquo;When the Fed operates at a profit, it sends the net profits to the Treasury (after covering its own operating expenses). When the Fed operates at a loss, the Treasury advances funds to the Fed to cover the gap. The Fed can repay those advances out of future profits.
&ldquo;In recent years, the Treasury has allowed the Fed to keep some of its profits as a kind of rainy-day fund to cover future losses. Importantly, the Fed does not mark-to-market in its accounting, so it never has to recognize losses on its Treasury security holdings when interest rates rise.
&ldquo;In short, Fed operating losses don&rsquo;t matter much and hardly anyone notices.&rdquo;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4_2x-new.png 2x" alt="4" width="37" />Timeless Wisdom
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> The following meme making the rounds of social media today is an authentic quotation&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/42CDlNFb4BzVdxfLph7Yra/3999fb37f564b039001b7e1ae1a5f2cf/WarrenBuffet.png" alt="warren buffet" width="450px" />
Buffett said that on CNBC in 2011. Perhaps he was only half-serious, but his point was that politicians have no incentive to address the federal budget deficit: "A more effective threat would be just to say, &lsquo;If you guys can't get it done, we'll get some other guys to get it done.'"
As it happens, this 3% of GDP target is one of the aims of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent&rsquo;s so-called &ldquo;3-3-3&rdquo; plan.
But with the deficit now 6.4% of GDP &mdash; unprecedented outside of wartime, a financial crisis or a pandemic &mdash; he&rsquo;s giving himself until 2028 to get the job done.
<a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/scott-bessents-3-3-3-666">We&rsquo;re skeptical he&rsquo;ll ever get there</a>, a Republican-controlled Congress notwithstanding &mdash; but it&rsquo;s interesting to see ol&rsquo; Uncle Warren weigh in on the same subject over a decade ago.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5_2x-new.png 2x" alt="5" width="37" />Mailbag: Tesla Takedown, Waymo on the Snow
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> After we hit &ldquo;send&rdquo; on yesterday&rsquo;s edition, your editor encountered a historical episode that gets to the heart of the concerns <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/teslatakedown">expressed</a> in this space about the Trump administration&rsquo;s approach to the Tesla boycott.
I know readers are dismissive of my concerns that the feds are conflating legitimate protest with acts of arson and vandalism, but hang with me here&hellip;
Rewind to 1973, when a Nixon administration aide named Tom Charles Huston testified to Congress about the FBI&rsquo;s covert and illegal COINTELPRO program that went after everyone from the Black Panthers to the KKK.
See, it wasn&rsquo;t just people with violent tendencies who came on the FBI&rsquo;s radar.
As Huston described it, the FBI constantly expanded its target list &ldquo;from the kid with a bomb to the kid with a picket sign, and from the kid with the picket sign to the kid with the bumper sticker of the opposing candidate. And you just keep going down the line.&rdquo;
As James Bovard wrote for The American Conservative last year, &ldquo;At some point, surveillance became more intent on spurring fear than on gathering information. FBI agents were encouraged to conduct interviews with anti-war protesters to &lsquo;enhance the paranoia endemic in these circles and further serve to get the point across that there is an FBI agent behind every mailbox,&rsquo; as a 1970 FBI memo noted.&rdquo;
So no, I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s too early to sound the alarm.
Just because the Biden administration overreacted to J6 doesn&rsquo;t justify the Trump administration overreacting here. Yeah, I know that stance doesn&rsquo;t satisfy either tribe&rsquo;s thirst for the other tribe&rsquo;s blood, but so be it.
Let&rsquo;s move on to less weighty but equally interesting matters&hellip;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> &ldquo;I have not only had the experience of riding in Waymo's driverless cars, but I've also had the pleasure of talking with some of their employees about the cars,&rdquo; a reader writes after Davis Wilson&rsquo;s guest essay on Saturday. &ldquo;There are a few things I had learned that hadn't come up in the article.
&ldquo;There is a theme with all the cities mentioned: San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Austin, as well as the future Atlanta, Miami and Washington D.C.: They are nice warm places in the South. This isn't an accident. This is because these places are all relatively warm with little chance of roads icing over in the winter.
&ldquo;As of current writing, Waymos struggle with inclement weather. Heavy rain can blind lidar and slick roads change the entirety of the calculations needed to navigate safely.
&ldquo;While no longer science fiction. Driverless cars are still a way off from being able to replace long-haul truckers or see regular use everywhere. To really drive the point home, Waymos even struggle with parking lots and as of my last ride aren't allowed on the highways.
&ldquo;So don't be surprised if your autonomous taxi drops you off across the street from your destination or takes you on a scenic detour.&rdquo;
Dave responds: For whatever it&rsquo;s worth, a Waymo was spotted last Friday on the streets of Marquette, Michigan &mdash; which in a typical year gets nearly 200 inches of snow, and where an ice storm was bearing down that day.
Back in January Waymo said it would test things out in 10 cities this year &mdash; including a handful of other snowy locales such as Truckee, California in the Sierra Nevadas.
&ldquo;The vehicles will be manually driven, and the testing operations are not necessarily a precursor to the launch of a commercial robotaxi service,&rdquo; reported The Verge. &ldquo;Rather, the Alphabet-owned company views these &lsquo;road trips&rsquo; as an opportunity to see how well its self-driving system adapts to new locales with varying weather conditions and regional driving habits.&rdquo;
No word on how the test-drive went, but we&rsquo;re keeping an eye out&hellip;
Best regards,
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/signatures/dave-gonigam.png" alt="Dave Gonigam" width="250px" align="left" />
Dave Gonigam Managing editor, Paradigm Pressroom's 5 Bullets

shutterstock 2089175464

It’s not just tariff twitchiness that’s dragging down the stock market this year. There’s also apprehension that the AI boom got too far out over its skis. 

AI: Wall Street’s Half-Truths

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1_2x-new.png 2x" alt="1" width="37" />A Trader&rsquo;s Secret Weapon 
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;You need to have cash available to seize new opportunities,&rdquo; says our trading expert Enrique Abeyta. &ldquo;Without it, you can't &lsquo;buy the dip&rsquo; as I've been advising for weeks!&rdquo;
Enrique believes many investors underestimate the crucial role of cash &mdash; and trading &mdash; when it comes to their portfolios.
He explains: &ldquo;Trading is about seeking shorter-term opportunities, from six seconds to six months, aiming to profit in every type of stock market&rdquo; &mdash; in contrast with investing, which focuses on longer-term gains over years or decades.
&ldquo;For most investors,&rdquo; Enrique warns, &ldquo;trying to time the market will destroy value.&rdquo; However, for traders, he advocates a strategy that boils down to &ldquo;buy low and sell high.&rdquo; Easier said than done? 

<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/3g4ln1mT8hzdlofXC66Zy5/d0dc10f8738c125b5b7b1896e27c0c96/mug.png" alt="mug" width="300px" />

Source: Etsy
&ldquo;The proprietary software system I use for my flagship trading service The Maverick identifies opportunities based on the movement of individual stock prices,&rdquo; he says.
&ldquo;At its most basic level, this system looks for companies with strong operational momentum with stocks that have been big winners.
&ldquo;I then look for entry points where those stocks have sold off to an interesting level &mdash; when investors have sold the stock down so far and so fast that it is highly likely to snap back.
&ldquo;We become more aggressive and expand our recommendations during steep sell-offs or around earnings season. That&rsquo;s when it&rsquo;s time to put your cash to work.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> &ldquo;On the flip side, we often get very few &lsquo;buy&rsquo; signals when the stock market is at its highs,&rdquo; he says.
&ldquo;This means our number of actionable recommendations falls&hellip;
<ul>
<li>&ldquo;To put this into numbers, we average 20 open recommendations at any time in our model trading portfolio &mdash; particularly during market sell-offs</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>&ldquo;But the number of open positions can fall to low single digits during stock market highs.</li>
</ul>
&ldquo;At this point, we are taking profits on existing positions while building our cash reserves. This cash is the result of our &lsquo;sell high&rsquo; discipline,&rdquo; he notes.
&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t run this model on a specified amount of theoretical capital. But I like to think of it as a 100% invested portfolio at its averages (with, say, 20 positions receiving a 5% allocation).
&ldquo;But if we pulled back to only seven positions, then we would be only 35% invested. This means that we would be holding a 65% cash position.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> &ldquo;We are happy to be in this cash-rich position because it means that when the stock market sells off, we can execute our &lsquo;buy low&rsquo; strategy,&rdquo; Enrique says.
&ldquo;Usually, we will approach the 75&ndash;100% invested position via 15&ndash;20 positions as the markets test their 50-day and 100-day moving averages.
&ldquo;If it goes much further, we are willing to apply leverage and go to as much as 150% invested (30 positions) to take advantage of the situation.&rdquo;
Enrique&rsquo;s key takeaway? &ldquo;This is how our cash position is our secret weapon!&rdquo; he says. It&rsquo;s like bringing a gun to the knife show. &ldquo;It gives us the ability to turn the volatility and market risk to our advantage.&rdquo;

[Imagine building a six-figure nest egg in just weeks&hellip; Sounds crazy? 
But in 2021, $10K invested in this unique type of trade would have turned into almost $700,000 in just over two weeks.
Paradigm&rsquo;s legendary trader and former billion-dollar hedge fund manager Enrique Abeyta believes it could happen again this Tuesday, March 25, at 4 p.m. ET.
<a href="https://pro.paradigm-press.info/m/2423779">Click here to get all the details. Before this trade </a><a href="https://pro.paradigm-press.info/m/2423779">is history</a><a href="https://pro.paradigm-press.info/m/2423779">.</a>]

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2_2x-new.png 2x" alt="2" width="37" />Sign of the Times
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> DoorDash and Klarna have decided to join forces to finance late-night pizza cravings. Yes, in a few months, DoorDash customers will be able to choose from Klarna&rsquo;s buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) options at checkout.
DoorDash representative Anand Subbarayan assures us this is all about &ldquo;enhancing convenience&rdquo;... But what about pesky interest rates? 
&ldquo;Klarna works by dividing the total cost of your purchase into smaller installments when you check out in the Klarna app or from an online retailer,&rdquo; says NerdWallet.
&ldquo;Payment plans to choose from [include] Klarna Pay in 4, Klarna Pay in 30 and Klarna monthly payments.&rdquo;

<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/eHKcKcOGYjAiFSanOFKr6/8364345e0e98f97689d029450b5e9a32/Klarna.png" alt="klarna" width="540px" />

Source: NerdWallet
While Klarna doesn&rsquo;t explicitly target subprime borrowers with higher rates, those with lower credit scores may be more likely to receive offers with higher interest rates within that 0&ndash;33.99% range.
It&rsquo;s also worth mentioning that Klarna&rsquo;s business model relies on merchant fees and hopes that &mdash; of course! &mdash; a certain percentage of users will miss payments, allowing them to charge higher interest rates and/or late fees.
In short: Just don&rsquo;t.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />DoorDash (DASH) shares are down about 2% at the time of writing &mdash; which coincides with the whole bloody market today. 
Taking it on the chin, the S&amp;P 500 is faring the worst, down about 0.25% to 5,645. Meanwhile, the Big Board is down about 0.20% to 41,870. The techie Nasdaq? Almost breaking even at 17,685.
Turning to the commodities complex, the price of crude is up 0.20% to $68.20 for a barrel of WTI. But precious metals are getting clobbered. Gold is down 0.80% to $3,018.70 per ounce, and silver&rsquo;s down 1.55% to 33.47.
As for crypto, Bitcoin&rsquo;s down 0.30%, just under $84,000; at the same time, Ethereum is down 0.65% or just under $2,000.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3_2x-new.png 2x" alt="3" width="37" />AI&rsquo;s Power Paradox
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> On Thursday, Nvidia announced a partnership with energy R&amp;D company EPRI to address the overworked electrical grid. 
The power sector is facing a surge in demand from data centers, with electricity consumption projected to increase by 4% annually in the coming years, eventually nearly doubling the consumption levels of 2023.
So Nvidia and EPRI &mdash; as well as major players like PG&amp;E, Con Edison, Duke Energy, Microsoft and Oracle &mdash; are forming the Open Power AI Consortium, with plans to develop open-source, domain-specific AI models to tackle future power industry issues.
The consortium will develop AI road maps and facilitate knowledge sharing among members. This collaboration aims to address complex challenges such as grid modernization and resilience.
Meanwhile, tech companies are proactively securing power generation capacity. According to TechCrunch, they are focusing especially on renewable energy projects, particularly solar power. (Of course, we know that tech giants including Google, Microsoft and Amazon are exploring <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/rickards-and-altucher-agree-on-this-prediction#2">nuclear power</a>, too.)
While new power sources are crucial, the consortium may also explore innovative solutions like load shifting. A recent study suggests that optimizing usage during off-peak periods could unlock an additional 76 gigawatts of capacity, representing about 10% of peak demand in the U.S.
This latest development notwithstanding, Paradigm&rsquo;s science-and-tech specialist Ray Blanco says Nvidia&rsquo;s CEO Jensen Huang made more big news this week&hellip;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4_2x-new.png 2x" alt="4" width="37" />&ldquo;Nvidia Math&rdquo; Changes Everything
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;The amount of computation we need&hellip; is easily 100 times more than we thought we needed this time last year,&rdquo; according to Huang on Tuesday. 
&ldquo;Investors have been worrying that the AI boom might be cooling,&rdquo; says Ray. &ldquo;But Nvidia's GTC conference [turned] that fear upside down in spectacular fashion.
&ldquo;So what&rsquo;s driving this massive increase in [computational] demand?
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s what Jensen calls &lsquo;reasoning AI&rsquo; &mdash; artificial intelligence that doesn&rsquo;t just blurt out an answer based on pattern matching, but actually works through problems step by step,&rdquo; Ray notes.
<ul>
<li>&ldquo;In one demonstration, Nvidia showed how a traditional AI could solve a complex problem using 439 &lsquo;tokens&rsquo; (the building blocks of AI responses). The answer came quickly but was wrong</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>&ldquo;The new reasoning AI took nearly 9,000 tokens to solve the same problem. It tested different approaches, checked its answers and arrived at the correct solution&hellip;</li>
</ul>
&ldquo;But it required 20X more processing power!&rdquo; Ray notes.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> &ldquo;This shift to reasoning AI is transforming the entire industry: Think of it as the difference between a calculator and a mathematician,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;For investors, this has massive implications.
&ldquo;First, remember all the talk about GPU shortages ending? We're entering a new phase of AI that will drive unprecedented demand for computing power.
&ldquo;Second, Nvidia isn't just upgrading its chips &mdash; it&rsquo;s completely reimagining how AI computing works. Their new Blackwell system delivers 25X more performance than its predecessor using the same amount of power.
&ldquo;Nvidia has become so dominant that they're literally changing how the industry measures computing power. They're measuring differently, counting differently and building differently &mdash; all to support the massive scale needed for this new generation of AI.&rdquo;
In fact, &ldquo;Nvidia math changes everything&hellip;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> &ldquo;The company unveiled a road map through 2027 showing each generation providing exponentially more power, culminating in systems 900X more powerful than today&rsquo;s top chips,&rdquo; says Ray.
&ldquo;Perhaps most significant for investors: Nvidia is no longer talking about data centers, but &lsquo;AI factories,&rsquo;&rdquo; he adds. &ldquo;From liquid cooling systems to specialized integration services, from new memory technologies to advanced silicon &mdash; the entire ecosystem is being transformed.
&ldquo;This isn't just another chip cycle. It's the beginning of what will likely be the defining wealth-creation opportunity of our lifetime,&rdquo; Ray concludes.
&ldquo;When something you want goes on sale, you buy&hellip; Right now, AI is on sale.
&ldquo;Wall Street is still catching up to what this means,&rdquo; says Ray. &ldquo;But for those who understand the implications, the opportunity has never been clearer.&rdquo;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5_2x-new.png 2x" alt="5" width="37" />Dumpster-Diving Duo Hits the Motherlode
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />A New Jersey couple recently hit the jackpot while rummaging through a Dollar General dumpster, unearthing a haul worth $600. 
Julia Matthews-Reszler and her husband, Brandon, aren&rsquo;t your average bargain hunters. They&rsquo;re carrying on a family tradition of dumpster diving, inspired by Julia&rsquo;s late grandfather George, who turned trash-picking into an art form.
Their recent score? A veritable cornucopia of goodies&hellip;

<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/1IIP9CKvp09LIqzFFllsyT/36674c90f5add9410333526393f039a6/food.png" alt="food" width="540px" />

Source: Reddit, Newsweek Many items were barely past their &ldquo;best by&rdquo; dates, with some good until October 2025&hellip;
While the couple was thrilled with their haul, they&rsquo;re also sobered by the implications. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a rush, but then grief takes over as we realize how much is going to waste,&rdquo; Julia remarks.
In true Robin Hood fashion, the couple has shared their bounty with friends and even the homeless in their local community.
Who knew dumpster diving could be so profitable?
Heh, at the risk of contracting cholera, I guess it beats DoorDashing (especially if Klarna is involved).
Take care, reader! Have a wonderful weekend&hellip;
Best regards,
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/signatures/emily-clancy.png" alt="Emily Clancy" width="250px" align="left" />
Emily Clancy Associate editor, Paradigm Pressroom's 5 Bullets

A secret agent holding a gun 5 bullets hero 

shutterstock 131052221

“This,” says our trading expert Enrique Abeyta, “is our secret weapon!”

Bring a Gun to the Knife Show

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1_2x-new.png 2x" alt="1" width="37" />Why Is Today, March 20, So Important?
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> We begin with an acknowledgment of the obvious.
So yes, I&rsquo;m fully aware that yesterday&rsquo;s edition &mdash; plus the promotional email I sent yesterday &mdash; is classic Oooh, a crash is coming on THIS SPECIFIC DATE marketing.
Considering that the specific date is today, you deserve a follow-up &mdash; and some transparency.
Just to back up a bit: Starting late last year, Paradigm editor Mason Sexton, editor of The Map, said today &mdash; March 20, 2025 &mdash; is a potential pivot point both for the markets and society at large.
&ldquo;I believe March 20 is an important date where we could see a very important trend change,&rdquo; he said <a href="https://pro.paradigm-press.info/m/2423408">in our exclusive video called The Prophecy</a>.

To be absolutely clear, we&rsquo;re talking on or about March 20. It&rsquo;s the date his one-of-a-kind methodology points to. The exact date is not crucial to the success of the trades he recommends.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Case in point: Way back when, Mr. Sexton called the Black Monday crash of 1987 &mdash; still the biggest one-day percentage drop in stock market history.
&ldquo;If I had to guess the final top,&rdquo; he said in advance, &ldquo;I&rsquo;d say first or second week of October&hellip; that would precede a correction of 15&ndash;20% minimum.&rdquo;
it turned out to be the third week &mdash; the Dow industrials plunging 22.7% on Oct. 19. No matter: Anyone who followed his seven specific recommendations leading up to that day fared very well indeed.
I won&rsquo;t get into the weeds about his methodology today. If you subscribe to The Map, you&rsquo;re already up to speed. <a href="https://pro.paradigm-press.info/m/2423408">And if you&rsquo;re not, he can explain it in his own words way better than I can</a>.
For our purposes here, I want to explore two possibilities that could make today &mdash; or the coming days &mdash; a make-or-break moment.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2_2x-new.png 2x" alt="2" width="37" />&ldquo;Magic Money Computers&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />For starters, there&rsquo;s Elon Musk&rsquo;s claim that &ldquo;magic money computers&rdquo; exist within key federal agencies.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/3DIl0uiE3g2BA3mua28y3y/25c8dd9496c0bcdd8cc29fa12de0be75/Mrgunsngear.png" alt="Mrgunsngear" width="540px" />
Musk says his DOGE boys have found 14 so far &mdash; most of them at the Treasury, some at the State Department, one at Health and Human Services and one at the Pentagon.
&ldquo;They just send money out of nothing,&rdquo; he said on Sen. Ted Cruz&rsquo;s (R-Texas) podcast.
(In other news, Sen. Ted Cruz has a podcast.)
&ldquo;Any computer which can just make money out of thin air,&rdquo; Musk said, &ldquo;that&rsquo;s magic money.&rdquo;
Exactly what Musk means here is squishy. In one sense, the U.S. government has been &ldquo;making money out of thin air&rdquo; since 1971 &mdash; when President Richard Nixon killed off the last vestiges of the gold standard.
Nothing new about that &mdash; we&rsquo;ve been dealing with the diminishing purchasing power of fiat currency ever since.
But Musk suggests the &ldquo;money out of thin air&rdquo; in question amounts to 5&ndash;10% above and beyond what shows up in the official statements of the U.S. Treasury.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Musk seems to imply that the funds disbursed by these computers are not drawn on Uncle Sam&rsquo;s accounts at the Treasury. The funds are pure counterfeit.
At least one sharp-eyed observer is latching onto this dire interpretation: &ldquo;This is the biggest news of the century,&rdquo; tweets Chris Martenson of the long-running Peak Prosperity website. &rdquo;If money is being spent without it coming from a message-settled banking account, it means the entire system of banking is an overt fraud.&rdquo;
If true, what can Musk and the DOGE boys do about it?
Well, if the payments were out-and-out fraudulent, then the government could attempt to claw them back from the recipients, assuming the recipients can be tracked down.
But that might have the effect of cleaning out the recipients&rsquo; bank accounts. That could have all sorts of nasty knock-on effects &mdash; not least for the banks.
In a worst-case scenario the Trump administration would have to decide whether to&hellip;
<ol>
<li>Let the chips fall where they may and cleanse the system of the underlying rot or</li>
<li>Pursue another series of massive bank bailouts on top of the ones that took place in 2020 and 2008.</li>
</ol>
By the way, Mason Sexton accurately called both the COVID crisis of 2020 and the subprime crisis of 2008 &mdash; to the benefit of his wealthy hedge fund clients. This time, everyday folks like you stand to benefit. <a href="https://pro.paradigm-press.info/m/2423408">Give his presentation</a><a href="https://pro.paradigm-press.info/m/2423408"> The Prophecy</a><a href="https://pro.paradigm-press.info/m/2423408"> a look right away &mdash; and learn why today and the following days could be so significant</a>.

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3_2x-new.png 2x" alt="3" width="37" />Will Trump Nuke Iran?
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Or maybe the impending crisis will be Donald Trump unleashing a nuclear attack on Iran.
This week, independent journalist Ken Klippenstein &mdash; formerly with The Intercept &mdash; has reported a series of, for lack of a better term, bombshells.
&ldquo;President Trump&rsquo;s menu of options for dealing with Tehran now includes one he didn&rsquo;t have in his first term,&rdquo; he writes: &ldquo;full-scale war.
&ldquo;Pentagon and company contracting documents I&rsquo;ve obtained describe &lsquo;a unique joint staff planning&rsquo; effort underway in Washington and in the Middle East to refine the next generation of &lsquo;a major regional conflict&rsquo; with Iran&hellip;
&ldquo;While a range of military options are often provided to presidents in a passive-aggressive attempt on the part of the Pentagon to steer them to the one favored by the brass, Trump already has shown his proclivity to select the most provocative option. Trump reportedly &lsquo;stunned&rsquo; Pentagon officials in 2020 when he chose to assassinate Iran&rsquo;s top general Qassim Suleimani from his menu of choices&hellip;
&ldquo;What Trump can now do, which is right out of the Israeli playbook, is attack Iran's command and control, including Iran&rsquo;s leadership, if for no other reason than to emphasize the new boss isn&rsquo;t the same as the old one.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> And yes, nukes are on the table.
The plans were in the works last year, even before Trump returned to the presidency. Klippenstein&rsquo;s source on the nuclear angle is &ldquo;a retired senior military officer who has been briefed on the planning.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Escalating an Iran conflict to the use of nuclear options can originate in two ways,&rdquo; writes Klippenstein: &ldquo;One, with the CENTCOM commander &lsquo;requesting&rsquo; the use of nuclear weapons, mostly to stave off Iranian conventional military success; and two, in a &lsquo;top down&rsquo; order, that is, by the president, mostly as a &lsquo;demonstration&rsquo; to &lsquo;signal&rsquo; to Iran.&rdquo;
During his roughly 10 years as a journalist, Klippenstein says he can&rsquo;t recall writing about nukes once. &ldquo;Now, the nuclear threat seems very much a live issue with this latest generation of detailed military planning that could be put in motion at any time and by a single person who has already shown himself to have a much bigger appetite for risk, even than in his first time.&rdquo;
One might wish there&rsquo;d be an opportunity for vigorous public debate about how much of a threat Tehran poses to Americans in America (as opposed to Americans in the Middle East or Israelis)... and whether that threat justifies the first use of nuclear weapons since 1945&hellip; but evidently that&rsquo;s not in the cards.
As far as the markets, a U.S. nuclear attack targeting Iran would be the mother of all geopolitical shocks &mdash; more than Russia invading Ukraine in 2022, more than 9/11 in 2001, more than Iraq invading Kuwait in 1990.
To be sure, it&rsquo;s only one of many possibilities that could make today or the days to come a memorable moment in the history of this century. It could also be the fallout from the &ldquo;magic money computers.&rdquo; Or it could be something else entirely.
Whatever it turns out to be, you want your portfolio to be ready. Mason Sexton has you covered. <a href="https://pro.paradigm-press.info/m/2423408">Follow this link to start watching </a><a href="https://pro.paradigm-press.info/m/2423408">The Prophecy</a><a href="https://pro.paradigm-press.info/m/2423408"> right away</a>.

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4_2x-new.png 2x" alt="4" width="37" />The Fed&rsquo;s &ldquo;Backdoor Rate Cut&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Gee, a collapse of the banking system and nuclear warfare sorta make the latest Federal Reserve decision look like a nothingburger, no?
To no one&rsquo;s surprise, the Fed left its benchmark fed funds rate alone; it&rsquo;s been sitting at 4.5% for three months now.
But there was one unexpected development: The Fed decided to slow the pace at which it&rsquo;s reducing its still-bloated balance sheet. Paradigm&rsquo;s macro maven Jim Rickards calls it a backdoor rate cut.
When the COVID crisis hit, the Fed started buying Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities at a furious pace to stabilize financial markets. As a result, the Fed&rsquo;s balance sheet exploded from a little over $4 trillion in early 2020 to nearly $9 trillion by early 2022.
The Fed has been trying to get back to some semblance of &ldquo;normal&rdquo; for the last three years and indeed the balance sheet is now back below $7 trillion.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/4wVN3k0JxDdAzXbwZFRn06/f08333c38a836d8d97c083af48d03cc7/3.20_5_Bullets_Chart.png" alt="getting back to normal" width="540px" />
However&hellip; yesterday the Fed decided to slow the pace of this &ldquo;runoff&rdquo; from $25 billion a month to only $5 billion. All else being equal, that&rsquo;s a stealth form of monetary easing.
As for when the Fed might resume its rate-cut cycle, the futures markets are saying another three months. But Jim Rickards won&rsquo;t rule out a cut as soon as the next meeting on May 7 &mdash; especially if the inflation rate continues to climb down. (It fell from 3.0% to 2.8% in February, but one month is not a trend.)
&ldquo;Fed Chair Jay Powell will focus on the dual mandate of low unemployment and price stability as required by law,&rdquo; Jim tells his Crisis Trader readers. &ldquo;But the Fed can juggle which part of the mandate (jobs or inflation) takes precedence at any point in time.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> The major U.S. stock indexes held onto their morning gains after the Fed issued its proclamation yesterday &mdash; and they&rsquo;re adding to those gains today.
At last check, the S&amp;P 500 is up a fifth of a percent to 5,686. The Dow and the Nasdaq are both up about a third of a percent.
&ldquo;The big question right now is follow-through,&rdquo; says Paradigm&rsquo;s Greg Guenthner at The Trading Desk. &ldquo;Can buyers continue to step in here now that the aggressive selling seems to have slowed? And can traders shake off any bad news that might otherwise interrupt a relief rally?&rdquo;
Gold is taking a rest, down nine bucks to $3,038. Silver can&rsquo;t catch a break, now $33.37. Bitcoin sits a hair over $85,000, near its 200-day moving average.
Crude is up over a buck to $68.35 &mdash; the highest in nearly three weeks. But in no way does it look ready to break out to, say, $70 or higher.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> The big economic number of the day might deceive you into believing the tight housing market is finally starting to loosen up.
Existing home sales clocked in way higher than expected &mdash; a 4.2% jump from January to February.
But that jump was concentrated in the South (hurricanes) and the West (wildfires). &ldquo;Displaced households may be anxious to buy whatever the market conditions,&rdquo; says a summary from Econoday. Even with that, existing home sales are down 1.2% year-over-year.
The median price of an existing home sits at $398,400 &mdash; up 1.3% for the month and up 3.8% compared with a year ago. That&rsquo;s nearly five times median household income, calculated by the Census Bureau in 2023 at $80,610.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5_2x-new.png 2x" alt="5" width="37" />Grim Chuckle
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />To the best of our knowledge there&rsquo;ve been no new major releases of JFK files since our dispatch yesterday.
We did, however, encounter the following&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/2erQUJji0xrwWR6HB5lh0d/5c67e3fc040a5e4271ae97ee76e8326d/JFK.png" alt="JFK" width="540px" />
It doesn&rsquo;t help armchair researchers that the files released this week aren&rsquo;t searchable. (Maybe Musk and the DOGE boys can introduce the National Archives to OCR software?)
But the good folks at the Mary Ferrell Foundation &mdash; which has been suing the feds for years to get access &mdash; promises to convert the documents soon as searchable PDFs.
Best regards,
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/signatures/dave-gonigam.png" alt="Dave Gonigam" width="250px" align="left" />
Dave Gonigam Managing editor, Paradigm Pressroom's 5 Bullets

shutterstock 366950609

We explore two possibilities that could make today — or the coming days — a make-or-break moment.

“Magic Money Computers” 

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1_2x-new.png 2x" alt="1" width="37" />The Third Month
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Whatever the reason, earth-shaking and market-moving events have a way of happening during the month of March.
We touched on this phenomenon briefly last week: COVID lockdowns hit in March of 2020, sending the market on its steepest plunge in decades &mdash; only to be rescued that same month by a tsunami of Federal Reserve funny money.
More recently, Silicon Valley Bank flamed out in March of 2023 &mdash; the signal event in a cascade of bank failures that spring, both in the United States and overseas.
Looking further back in time, March 2000 marked the peak of the dot-com bubble. The Nasdaq began a grueling 78% downard grind that didn&rsquo;t end until late 2002.
Including today, nine trading days remain in March 2025. Plenty of time for something big to go down.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> While Wall Street and the financial media obsess over whatever the Federal Reserve does later today&hellip; Paradigm&rsquo;s own Mason Sexton says something much, much bigger is in the cards tomorrow.
Late last year, when this market veteran of 45 years&rsquo; experience joined our team&hellip; he was already laser-focused on tomorrow, March 20, 2025. He said it could prove to be &ldquo;the most significant date of the first quarter.&rdquo;
Simply put, he anticipates a market disruption that could alter the course of Donald Trump&rsquo;s presidency &mdash; as high-impact an event as his two impeachments and two assassination attempts.
How could Mr. Sexton pinpoint one date with so much confidence, more than three months out?
Well, the same way he pinpointed the Black Monday crash in 1987&hellip; the 2008 financial crisis&hellip; and the 2020 COVID crash. Top hedge funds paid him upwards of $10,000 a month for access to those forecasts.
But what&rsquo;s coming tomorrow could be of such magnitude that he wants to get his warning out to a wider audience of everyday Americans.
Readers of his premium advisory The Map are already prepared for whatever&rsquo;s coming. Are you? <a href="https://pro.paradigm-press.info/m/2422929">Click here to learn why tomorrow is so important &mdash; and what you should do to get ready</a>.

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2_2x-new.png 2x" alt="2" width="37" />&ldquo;We&rsquo;re Gonna Need a Bigger Power Grid&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Perhaps the biggest takeaway from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang&rsquo;s annual presentation to software developers has to do with AI&rsquo;s impact on the power grid.
It&rsquo;s a story we&rsquo;ve been onto since early 2024 &mdash; months before the tech giants like Microsoft and Amazon <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/the-monster-that-ate-the-power-grid-ai">began to embrace nuclear power</a> so they could have a reliable, always-on source of juice for their power-hungry data centers. Even so, the grid just can&rsquo;t keep up with AI&rsquo;s prodigious demands.
If the tech industry was hoping for relief from Nvidia&rsquo;s next generation of chips, it came away from yesterday disappointed.
From the Reuters newswire: &ldquo;A promising new chip technology that aims to cut energy usage is not yet reliable enough for use in Nvidia's flagship graphics processing units (GPUs), Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang said Tuesday.
&ldquo;Co-packaged optics, as the emerging technology is called, uses beams of laser light to send information on fiber-optic cables between chips, making connections faster and with superior energy efficiency to those through traditional copper cables.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />That&rsquo;s especially bad news because Huang says that relative to expectations a year ago, the world will need 100 times as much computing power for advanced AI.
A bold number, but Paradigm analyst Davis Wilson thinks it&rsquo;s on the mark: &ldquo;Reasoning models, which &lsquo;think&rsquo; through complex problems step-by-step, and AI agents, designed to autonomously handle tasks like booking flights, aren&rsquo;t lightweight innovations.
&ldquo;They generate massive datasets and require blazing-fast processing to deliver timely results.&rdquo;
Or as Huang put it yesterday, &ldquo;Users won&rsquo;t want to wait 10 times longer to get an answer that relies on 10 times more data.&rdquo;
All in all, Davis came away impressed with Huang&rsquo;s presentation, even if co-packaged optics still aren&rsquo;t ready for prime time.
&ldquo;Nvidia unveiled an upgraded Blackwell Ultra chip, set to launch later in 2025,&rdquo; Davis writes for our sister e-letter The Million Mission. &ldquo;This is the newest version of Blackwell which has already hit full production and raked in $11 billion in Q4 revenue.
&ldquo;Huang then dropped the bombshell of the Rubin AI superchip, slated for mid-2026, boasting over three times the Blackwell Ultra&rsquo;s power, with an even mightier Rubin Ultra variant to follow in 2027 offering 14 times Blackwell&rsquo;s performance.
&ldquo;Named after astronomer Vera Rubin, this road map signals Nvidia&rsquo;s intent to dominate AI compute for years to come.
&ldquo;Analysts project the Rubin series alone could generate $40 billion in its first year and $95 billion in its second &mdash; numbers that dwarf the annual revenue of most S&amp;P 500 companies.&rdquo;
NVDA sold off 3% during and after Huang&rsquo;s talk yesterday, caught up in a general market downdraft. Some of that loss has been recovered this morning, but Davis says Nvidia still looks like a relative bargain. Its price-earnings ratio is basically the same as the entire S&amp;P 500.
&ldquo;This valuation is dirt-cheap for a company that&rsquo;s growing as fast as Nvidia is.&rdquo;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3_2x-new.png 2x" alt="3" width="37" />About Those &ldquo;Robust&rdquo; Retail Sales
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> No major economic numbers today, but it&rsquo;s worth following up on a number we mentioned Monday.
Monday was when the retail sales report came out from the Census Bureau. Once you factored out volatile auto sales and falling gasoline prices, the number was just fine &mdash; a month-over-month increase of 0.5%, in line with Wall Street&rsquo;s expectations.
We also mentioned that these numbers are not adjusted for inflation. Over time, that lack of adjustment can start to distort the real picture.
The real picture comes courtesy of a chart from the folks at Statista.
Note the green line. Adjusted for inflation, we see that retail sales are on a generally higher trajectory than they were in pre-pandemic years&hellip; but for all intents and purposes, they&rsquo;re ruler-flat since the last of the &ldquo;stimmy&rdquo; checks went out in 2021.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/5gZMckk89K3VCR2l0EnAX1/5405d4e711dde3b909f832546bae5ef9/Inflation.png" alt="infaltion" width="540px" />
&ldquo;Between February 2022 and 2025,&rdquo; writes Statista&rsquo;s Felix Richter, &ldquo;monthly retail and food services sales (adjusted for seasonal variations, holiday and trading day differences) increased by 11.1%. Adjusted for CPI inflation, sales actually declined by 1.1%.&rdquo;
So much for the mighty American consumer, huh?
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />For once, the major U.S. stock indexes are not treading water ahead of a Federal Reserve announcement.
Usually Mr. Market bides his time every six weeks on Wednesdays until the Fed issues its proclamation at 2:00 p.m. Eastern and chair Jerome Powell holds his press conference.
Not today: All the major indexes are solidly in the green, the S&amp;P 500 up two-thirds of a percent to 5,651. (For perspective, that&rsquo;s down 8% from its record close one month ago today. On the other hand, 5,651 was a record last July.)
Gold, however, is treading water at $3,030 and silver is losing ground at $33.57.
Bitcoin is making another run toward $85,000 &mdash; but we&rsquo;ve been here before in the last week and a half.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4_2x-new.png 2x" alt="4" width="37" />Energy Quietly Breaks Out
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />The oil price has bounced around between $65&ndash;68 all month &mdash; but under the surface, &ldquo;the energy sector is daring you to buy,&rdquo; says Paradigm chart hound Greg Guenthner.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been bullish on energy stocks for three months now, but I have yet to pull the trigger on a trade,&rdquo; he writes for Truth &amp; Trends.
If that makes no sense, allow him to explain: Late last year, Greg already anticipated a &ldquo;rotation&rdquo; out of highflying tech names and into forgotten sectors like energy. Sure enough, XLE, the big energy ETF, rallied 10% into mid-January.
&ldquo;But XLE&rsquo;s strength evaporated before we were presented with a clear buy signal,&rdquo; he says. &rdquo;Instead of a rip-roaring rally, energy and the overall market fell into a malaise&hellip; Energy names have been caught up in the broad selling pressure coloring the market as most investors have scurried to the sidelines.&rdquo;
That all changed on Monday &mdash; when shares of Exxon Mobil broke out.
Here&rsquo;s a candlestick chart, complete with a reading of relative strength, to illustrate&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/2cpvkjw4L47ycBvA5BOQ96/20de9962203c90e7b41ba7967354e7c0/XOM.png" alt="XOM" width="540px" />
&ldquo;XOM completed a three-month bullish reversal,&rdquo; says Greg &mdash; &ldquo;after the 14-day RSI slipped below 30 last December (its deepest oversold momentum reading since crude oil went negative).
&ldquo;If you&rsquo;ve been burned by energy stocks in the past, I get it. You only have to touch a hot stove once to learn your lesson. But I&rsquo;m talking about a quick two&ndash;three-week swing trade, not a long-term buy-and-hold position. I bet your kitchen hands can handle it.
&ldquo;Now, you can stick with the safer, less volatile bellwethers (like XOM). Or you can tango with the riskier, more lively drilling stocks. It&rsquo;s up to you.&rdquo;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5_2x-new.png 2x" alt="5" width="37" />Deep-State Disclosure
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> &ldquo;The most important blank page remaining in the JFK files&rdquo; &mdash; as the journalist Jefferson Morley calls it &mdash; is finally public.
As we&rsquo;ve said <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/from-jfk-to-jeffrey-epstein">ever since the 60th anniversary in 2023</a>, the JFK murder marked the moment when Americans&rsquo; trust in &ldquo;the system&rdquo; began to erode, and the post-WWII zeitgeist that life would keep getting better and better started falling apart. Full disclosure of the redacted JFK files might begin a needed healing process.
On Jan. 23, Donald Trump issued an executive order setting out a process for the release of those files.
Actual release began last night. Morley, who&rsquo;s been suing the CIA for over two decades for full access to the files, calls it &ldquo;an encouraging start.&rdquo;
What Morley calls &ldquo;the most important blank page remaining in the JFK files&rdquo; is Page 9 of a memo written by JFK aide Arthur Schlesinger in June 1961, two months after the Bay of Pigs fiasco.
Before last night, we already knew that Schlesinger warned JFK that &ldquo;the contemporary CIA possesses many of the characteristics of a state within a state.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> At last we know the rest of the story. &ldquo;The CIA was effectively usurping presidential authority,&rdquo; Morley tweets. &ldquo;The agency censored Schlesinger&rsquo;s case for six decades to obfuscate the reality of CIA power.&rdquo;
As ABC News reporter Steven Portnoy writes on X&hellip;
<blockquote>We now know Schlesinger argued that the CIA&rsquo;s reliance on &ldquo;controlled American sources&rdquo; had been encroaching upon the traditional functions of the State Department, and that the CIA may have been seeking to infiltrate the politics of America&rsquo;s allies, particularly France.</blockquote>
<blockquote>&ldquo;CIA today has nearly as many people under official cover overseas as State,&rdquo; Schlesinger wrote, adding that in certain countries, CIA&rsquo;s presence &ldquo;outnumbers regular State Department personnel.&rdquo;</blockquote>
<blockquote>The previously classified portion of the memo cites the specific number of CIA personnel that had been stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Paris, where &ldquo;CIA has even sought to monopolize contact with certain French political personalities, among them the president of the National Assembly.&rdquo;</blockquote>
That&rsquo;s what the CIA sought to cover up for six decades.
&ldquo;No, this isn't a &lsquo;smoking gun,'&rdquo; Morley allows &mdash; &ldquo;but that doesn't mean it&rsquo;s historically irrelevant. Far from it.
&ldquo;Schlesinger's memo lays bare the origins of JFK's mistrust of the CIA which continued for the rest of his presidency. Kennedy's suspicions were matched by CIA alienation from JFK's liberal policies. This was one cause of the assassination.&rdquo;
We still await critical files that are more directly relevant to JFK&rsquo;s murder &mdash; especially the personnel file of undercover CIA officer George Joannides, who kept tabs on Lee Harvey Oswald for four years before the assassination.
But as Morley says, the Schlesinger memo is a good start&hellip;
Best regards,
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/signatures/dave-gonigam.png" alt="Dave Gonigam" width="250px" align="left" />
Dave Gonigam Managing editor, Paradigm Pressroom's 5 Bullets

shutterstock 2537892169

Whatever the reason, earth-shaking and market-moving events have a way of happening during the month of March.

The 3rd Month

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1_2x-new.png 2x" alt="1" width="37" />Historic Tech Turnaround
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />What&rsquo;s happening at Intel &ldquo;could be one of the biggest turnarounds in tech history,&rdquo; says Paradigm&rsquo;s AI authority James Altucher.
&ldquo;Intel has been suffering through what can only be described as a brutal year. While competitors like Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) have seen their stocks explode during the AI boom, Intel has largely missed the party.
&ldquo;But that might be about to change dramatically.&rdquo;
As we mentioned in passing last week, the company named a new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan. As Tan formally takes over today, the news is worth exploring in more depth &mdash; especially since mainstream coverage is missing the point.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;Tan is no stranger to corporate turnarounds. His track record speaks for itself,&rdquo; says James.
&ldquo;He's the executive who turned Cadence Design Systems from a struggling company into a powerhouse.&rdquo; During his tenure as CEO from 2009-2023, the firm doubled its revenue while growing its profit margin.
His shareholders thrived during that 14-year span &mdash; CDNS soaring 3,200%.
Tan also served on Intel&rsquo;s board for two years until last summer. When he stepped down, he called it a &ldquo;personal decision based on a need to reprioritize various commitments.&rdquo; But every indication is that he had differences with CEO Pat Gelsinger over a slow and inefficient corporate culture.
Gelsinger &ldquo;got quit&rdquo; in December, as the saying goes.
&ldquo;Now Tan has the opportunity to implement his vision directly,&rdquo; says James.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> &ldquo;To understand why this matters, you need to understand Intel's unique position,&rdquo; he goes on.
Intel isn&rsquo;t just a chip designer competing with firms like Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices.
Nor is it only a chipmaker competing with the likes of Taiwan Semiconductor and Samsung.
It does both &mdash; competing with all those players.
And it&rsquo;s a costly undertaking. &ldquo;Intel lost $19.2 billion last year as it ramped up investments in manufacturing,&rdquo; James says. &ldquo;The losses are expected to continue until the fall.&rdquo;
So far, Wall Street has greeted Tan&rsquo;s appointment with a big bump to INTC&rsquo;s share price &mdash; almost 25% in less than a week.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />For that momentum to continue, &ldquo;Tan will have to make some big moves,&rdquo; says James &mdash; &ldquo;such as selling assets, forming new partnerships or landing major foundry customers.&rdquo;
Easier said than done, James concedes. Even so, James says this is a fallen tech angel&rsquo;s Phoenix moment to rise from the ashes. &ldquo;Longer term, Intel is a no brainer.
&ldquo;Here's what gets me excited: Intel has all the pieces to be an AI powerhouse. It just needs to put them all together. With Tan at the helm, that's exactly what could happen.&rdquo;
James&rsquo; conservative estimate of INTC&rsquo;s profit potential &mdash; 200&ndash;400% in the next three&ndash;five years.
&ldquo;That's not just optimism talking,&rdquo; he hastens to add. &ldquo;It's based on Intel's massive manufacturing capabilities, decades of chip development expertise, government support and new leadership.
&ldquo;For investors willing to be patient, this could be one of those rare opportunities to get in on the ground floor of something big.&rdquo;

<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />That said, James has his eye on something even bigger and more urgent today.
As we mentioned yesterday, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is delivering the keynote address at the company&rsquo;s annual &ldquo;GTC&rdquo; conference, laying out the company&rsquo;s future AI plans and advancements.
&ldquo;What he had to say was even bigger than what I initially predicted,&rdquo; says James. &ldquo;Huang shared details on the highly anticipated rollout of &lsquo;the X Chip&rsquo; &mdash; the most powerful chip in AI history.&rdquo;
As James has said for several days now, Elon Musk is one of the X-Chip&rsquo;s biggest customers. This state-of-the-art chip is the linchpin to what James calls &ldquo;Elon&rsquo;s endgame&rdquo; &mdash; transforming Musk&rsquo;s Project Colossus into the most powerful AI upgrade in history.
Musk and Nvidia are taking on a third partner in this venture &mdash; a tiny company that James says has 50X potential over the next 12 months. &ldquo;Now that the news is out,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;time is critically limited to get into this tiny stock.&rdquo; <a href="https://pro.paradigm-press.info/m/2422543">You&rsquo;ll want to click here and check out James&rsquo; presentation while it&rsquo;s still fresh</a>.

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2_2x-new.png 2x" alt="2" width="37" />The Fed Is Irrelevant
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> &ldquo;Despite the drama and publicity surrounding Federal Reserve meetings, the Fed is irrelevant,&rdquo; says Paradigm macroeconomics maven Jim Rickards.
Today the Fed opens one of its periodic two-day meetings to set monetary policy. At the end of the meeting tomorrow, the Fed will leave its benchmark fed funds rate at 4.5% &mdash; where it&rsquo;s been for the last three months.
What&rsquo;s the fed funds rate, anyway? &ldquo;The fed funds rate is basically an overnight interbank unsecured lending rate,&rdquo; says Jim.
&ldquo;Yet there has not been a meaningful fed funds market since 2008 because banks have trillions of dollars in excess reserves parked at the Fed and don&rsquo;t need to borrow from each other to meet reserve requirements. Put differently, the Fed is targeting something that doesn&rsquo;t exist.
&ldquo;The nearest functional equivalents to fed funds are the secured overnight financing rate (SOFR), which is the rate for interbank lending secured by Treasury securities collateral (basically the repo rate) or the yield on a 1-month Treasury bill.&rdquo;
The SOFR rate published by the New York Fed at the close of business yesterday was 4.32%. Meanwhile, if you buy a 1-month T-bill today, you&rsquo;ll get a yield of 4.31%.
Notice that both of those are lower than the current fed funds target of 4.5%.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> In other words, the market is already pushing short-term interest rates lower irrespective of what the Fed does.
These falling rates &ldquo;are a sign that growth is slowing, and the U.S. economy is heading into a recession (at worst) or sliding sideways (at best),&rdquo; Jim says.
But the Fed doesn&rsquo;t take its cues from the market. Instead it follows the inflation and unemployment indicators.
Inflation is falling relative to two or three years ago, but still not enough for the Fed&rsquo;s liking. Meanwhile, unemployment is rising, but not to alarming levels. Thus, the Fed is standing pat on rates &mdash; in hopes of containing inflation further.
Whatever. The Fed&rsquo;s actions don&rsquo;t give us a clear picture of the economic outlook. The market does.
&ldquo;Interest rate markets and other indicators such as the yield curve and swap spreads are telling us the economy is slowing, unemployment will get worse and longer-term interest rates will start to come down on their own as short-term rates already have,&rdquo; says Jim.
&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t watch the Fed; watch the interest rate markets if you want to know what&rsquo;s going on.&rdquo;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3_2x-new.png 2x" alt="3" width="37" />Markets, Industry, War
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />So much for the stock market&rsquo;s recovery. Meanwhile, gold is pushing solidly past $3,000.
After a rally going back to last Friday, the major U.S. stock indexes are back in the red &mdash; the S&amp;P 500 down 1.2% to 5,606. The Dow&rsquo;s losses aren&rsquo;t as bad; the Nasdaq&rsquo;s are worse.
Gold has powered its way to $3,025. But we&rsquo;re getting mixed signals from silver and the mining stocks: Silver is ruler-flat at $33.82 while the HUI index of mining shares is up 1.3% to 356.
Not much crypto action, with Bitcoin at $81,556.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> If U.S. industry is getting twitchy about tariffs, it&rsquo;s not showing up in one of the major economic indicators.
Industrial production grew 0.7% in February, according to the Federal Reserve &mdash; way more than anticipated by the typical Wall Street economist, who was looking for only 0.2%.
Manufacturing blew out expectations, growing 0.9%. Mining output and energy production grew as well, while utility output shrank after January&rsquo;s cold snap.
All told, 78.2% of America&rsquo;s industrial capacity was in use last month, the highest since last June.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Crude is little moved at $67.59 now that the Israel-Hamas ceasefire is over.
As perhaps you&rsquo;ve heard, Israel has resumed bombing the Gaza Strip after a two-month pause. Meanwhile, Donald Trump says he will hold Iran responsible for every attack carried out by Yemen&rsquo;s Houthi faction in solidarity with Hamas.
If you&rsquo;re feeling a certain 2002 march-to-war vibe right now, you&rsquo;re onto something. Except that this time, thousands of U.S. casualties might come in one fell swoop rather than being dragged out over a decade.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/2DlZtlkyS5q4KomAs11sfw/0110f32ad6b220a50293713c97731d4f/TuckerTweet.png" alt="Tucker Tweet" width="540px" />
And to think it was only last May when Trump told podcaster Tim Pool, &ldquo;You can solve problems over a telephone. Instead they start dropping bombs. Recently, they&rsquo;re dropping bombs all over Yemen. You don&rsquo;t have to do that.&rdquo;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4_2x-new.png 2x" alt="4" width="37" />Energy Sanity
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) wants to work with President Donald Trump (R) on developing artificial intelligence, nuclear power, and data centers despite their differences on other political issues,&rdquo; says an eye-opening Bloomberg report.
It was at the start of 2024 when we began warning you about the prodigious demands that AI will make on the power grid. As the year went on, Big Tech <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/the-monster-that-ate-the-power-grid-ai">began to embrace nuclear power</a> as a green option that, unlike wind and solar, can guarantee the always-on &ldquo;baseload&rdquo; power that data centers need.
In recent weeks, the Trump administration asked state governments for comments about AI and energy policy.
For her part, Hochul says she&rsquo;s all-in: &ldquo;New York is continuing to help New Yorkers launch businesses and access good jobs in this growing economy while building an AI future that is safe, sustainable and globally competitive,&rdquo; she said in a statement Monday. &ldquo;We welcome opportunities to collaborate with the Trump administration to advance those goals.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> This development is the latest in a series of about-faces by Hochul &mdash; lest residents of the Empire State freeze in the dark.
Officially, New York state has &ldquo;climate&rdquo; goals that include a 40% cut in carbon emissions from 1990 levels and 70% reliance on renewable electricity by 2030.
But as we chronicled last summer, Hochul acknowledged she and her comrades will have to go &ldquo;a little bit slower&rdquo; because &ldquo;the cost has both gone up so much I now have to step back and say, &lsquo;What is the cost on the typical New York family?&rsquo;&rdquo;
Embracing nuclear power is one thing&hellip; but embracing natural gas is another. Still, Hochul might be ready to do so. She met with Trump last Friday to discuss the construction of a natural gas pipeline through the Empire State.
The Constitution Pipeline &ldquo;would bring gas from Pennsylvania&rsquo;s drilling fields to New York,&rdquo; according to the NewsNation network &mdash; &ldquo;but Williams Cos. Inc. canceled the project in 2020 following opposition from politicians and environmentalists in New York.&rdquo;
No word on how the talks went, but Trump&rsquo;s energy secretary Chris Wright is enthusiastic.
"It's just such a win, win, win,&rdquo; he tells Fox Business. &ldquo;This will lower costs for people in the New York area, for New England. Not just heating costs, which is a big deal &mdash; old houses are heated by fuel oil. Natural gas is just so much cheaper and it burns cleaner.
"It'd also lower electricity prices, which, of course, everyone would cheer for that as well, and allow businesses in New England or in the New York City area to expand and grow their businesses and grow more jobs."
The times, they are a-changin&rsquo;...
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5_2x-new.png 2x" alt="5" width="37" />About Those New Crypto ETFs&hellip;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />A reader writes with a follow-up question to a special edition we published on Presidents&rsquo; Day.
On that day, James Altucher wrote in anticipation of new ETFs linked to the cryptos XRP and Solana. Launch is still months away, however.
&ldquo;XRP is currently traded on several crypto exchanges,&rdquo; the reader says. &ldquo;Is there reason to wait until the ETF option is available to purchase XRP? I understand that an ETF is a more secure/simpler process than direct crypto investment.&rdquo;
Dave responds: If you&rsquo;re sold on XRP&rsquo;s potential &mdash; it appears to be down 32% from its peak two months ago &mdash; there&rsquo;s no reason to wait. Especially if you&rsquo;re comfortable with a platform like Coinbase.
Indeed, federal approval of the ETF might well give the price a nice bump when approval comes&hellip;
Best regards,
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/signatures/dave-gonigam.png" alt="Dave Gonigam" width="250px" align="left" />
Dave Gonigam Managing editor, Paradigm Pressroom's 5 Bullets

eagle-ashes-365682185-580

What’s happening at Intel “could be one of the biggest turnarounds in tech history,” says Paradigm’s AI authority James Altucher.

Fallen Angel’s Phoenix Moment 

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1_2x-new.png 2x" alt="1" width="37" />Elon Throws Nvidia a Lifeline
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has the tough task of topping himself tomorrow.
Amid the euphoria for all things AI the last couple of years, Nvidia&rsquo;s annual software developer conference has become the forum for Huang to do his best imitation of the late Steve Jobs.
Much as Jobs made the crowd ooh and aah over the latest iPhone release, Huang brought down the house last year with the release of Nvidia&rsquo;s state-of-the-art Blackwell chip.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/3N4WEwgVksousrC627l5jk/5eecc44a558bbb1aeff839306b2ff615/PranjalTweet2.png" alt="Pranjal tweet" width="540px" />
Paradigm&rsquo;s AI authority James Altucher did a masterly job of preparing readers for this moment &mdash; anticipating the release of this chip days before Huang&rsquo;s announcement.
It was great news for Nvidia &mdash; and even better news for a handful of related AI players that James recommended. In the space of only three months, three of his best-performing AI trades could have delivered peak returns of 1,650%... 2,178%... and even 2,633%.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> By last summer, Huang was quite literally getting the rock-star treatment from adoring fans&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/1egNkzyPTWJM8JMwUg5hI6/815736e5a97fd895e9746c9d4201009a/NaveenTweet.png" alt="Naveen tweet" width="540px" />
Your editor listened to a recent podcast interview in which a financial analyst said that moment marked the top for Nvidia&rsquo;s share price.
Well, not quite. NVDA traded for $122 that day last June. It reached a top of nearly $150 shortly after New Year&rsquo;s Day.
What is true is that NVDA trades this week for the same $122 that it did at the time of the autograph signing seen &lsquo;round the world.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Thus, the vibe coming into this year&rsquo;s NVDA event tomorrow is much more muted.
&ldquo;Nvidia&rsquo;s Next Act Needs to Be Even Bigger,&rdquo; says a Wall Street Journal headline.
Reuters says Huang will have to &ldquo;defend his nearly $3 trillion chip company&rsquo;s dominance as pressure mounts on its biggest customers to rein in the costs of artificial intelligence.&rdquo;
That pressure is only growing based on the news from Asia this morning. As the South China Morning Post reports, &ldquo;A new artificial intelligence (AI) framework developed by teams associated with China&rsquo;s Tsinghua University is said to be able to reduce reliance on Nvidia chips for AI model inference, marking the latest effort by the country to enhance technological self-sufficiency.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />As it happens, our James Altucher says tomorrow Huang is getting a lifeline&hellip; from none other than Elon Musk.
James calls it &ldquo;Elon&rsquo;s Endgame&rdquo; &mdash; in which Musk and Huang are going in together on an AI venture that will redefine the space for years to come.
<ul>
<li>It could be up to 9,000% more powerful than current AI systems</li>
<li>It could disrupt industries from health care to energy to defense</li>
<li>And it will put extremely powerful AI capabilities in the hands of everyday Americans.</li>
</ul>
Yes, it could be an enormously lucrative proposition for well-positioned investors. Not because of a bump to NVDA&rsquo;s share price necessarily&hellip; but because James believes that during Huang&rsquo;s event tomorrow the world will learn about a third player in this venture.
It&rsquo;s a $1 billion AI company &mdash; at least right now. But based on the information from his sources, James says &ldquo;Elon&rsquo;s Endgame&rdquo; has the potential to grow the share price 50X by next year.
Members of the Paradigm Mastermind Group are already in the know about this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If you&rsquo;re not among them, there&rsquo;s still time before Huang&rsquo;s address tomorrow to get up to speed. <a href="https://pro.paradigm-press.info/m/2421975">Click here to watch James describe &ldquo;Elon&rsquo;s Endgame.&rdquo;</a>

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2_2x-new.png 2x" alt="2" width="37" />Here We Go Again
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />The oil price has jumped to its highest in nearly two weeks now that Donald Trump has restarted Joe Biden&rsquo;s war against the Houthi faction in Yemen.
While the markets were closed for the weekend &mdash; in recent years that&rsquo;s how it almost always goes with major U.S. military action &mdash; Washington launched airstrikes on Yemen.
On the surface, none of this makes any sense. Yes, the Houthis were harassing U.S.- and Israeli-linked shipping last year &mdash; an act of solidarity with the Palestinians of Gaza.
But the Houthis called off those attacks once Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire in January &mdash; you know, the ceasefire that Trump&rsquo;s own people negotiated shortly before he took office.
A few days ago, the Houthis said they would resume attacks on Israeli ships because Israel was violating the ceasefire with a blockade of humanitarian aid to Gaza. And that, apparently, is the pretext for Washington to start bombing Yemen again.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/4eN7HZvSSIeC2najfyFvgX/d061dbcffb1c1cbf65f77f8234e87126/RyanTweet3.png" alt="ryan tweet" width="540px" />
&ldquo;The Houthi attack on American vessels will not be tolerated,&rdquo; Trump bellowed on social media. &ldquo;We will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective.&rdquo;
But there was no &ldquo;attack on American vessels&rdquo; once the ceasefire took effect. And what&rsquo;s the &ldquo;objective&rdquo; of U.S. airstrikes, anyway?
There isn&rsquo;t even that much American shipping through the Red Sea that&rsquo;s being disrupted. It&rsquo;s mostly shipping between Europe and Asia that has to take the long trip around Africa.
Anyway, we&rsquo;re back where we were last year &mdash; U.S. forces firing missiles costing $2 million a pop while the Houthis are targeting U.S. warships with drones costing $2,000. That disparity has not changed with the transition from Biden to Trump.
&ldquo;Why did we have to do this?&rdquo; tweets Ann Coulter, channeling skeptics on the right. &ldquo;Is it part of our constitution that we must be bombing someone at all times?&rdquo;
Already Washington is looking to escalate &mdash; national security adviser Mike Waltz saying the next targets will be Iranian ships funneling intelligence to the Houthis.
Given the tight relationship between Iran and Russia, how&rsquo;s that going to work? It&rsquo;ll be interesting to see the readout of the phone call that Trump and Vladimir Putin are having this week that&rsquo;s supposed to be all about Ukraine.
In any event, crude is back above $68. Not a huge reaction for now &mdash; but there&rsquo;s nothing like a U.S. and/or Israeli attack on Iran to disrupt the global oil trade&hellip;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3_2x-new.png 2x" alt="3" width="37" />The Fed&rsquo;s Dilemma
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />The U.S. stock market is off to a lackluster start for the week as the Federal Reserve&rsquo;s next move comes into view.
The Fed issues one of its regular proclamations about short-term interest rates on Wednesday. Every indication is that the rate-cutting cycle that began last September and was paused in January will remain on pause. That would leave the benchmark fed funds rate at 4.5%.
&ldquo;The Fed is between a rock and a hard place,&rdquo; says Paradigm macroeconomics authority Jim Rickards. &ldquo;Right now, the Fed is more concerned about inflation. By May, they will be more concerned about jobs. They cannot cut rates to fight unemployment and raise rates to fight inflation at the same time. That&rsquo;s why they&rsquo;re basically throwing up their hands and doing nothing.&rdquo;
Amid that backdrop, the S&amp;P 500 is up a quarter percent to 5,651. Gold is on the cusp of $3,000 again, but silver is losing ground at $33.62.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> The day&rsquo;s major economic number is an eye-of-the-beholder thing.
Retail sales inched up 0.2% from January to February &mdash; way less than the 0.7% jump Wall Street economists were counting on.
But the headline number is frequently skewed by auto sales (which are volatile month-to-month) and by gasoline sales (falling gas prices can drag the number down).
If you factor those out you get a 0.5% jump, right in line with Wall Street&rsquo;s expectations.
All that said, retail sales are up 3.1% year-over-year. This number is not adjusted for inflation. Considering that the official inflation rate is running 2.8%, an objective observer is hard-pressed to say the mighty American consumer is in great shape and spending freely.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4_2x-new.png 2x" alt="4" width="37" />&ldquo;Not Dead Yet&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;Yes, Bitcoin is down. Yes, altcoins are bleeding,&rdquo; acknowledges Paradigm&rsquo;s senior crypto analyst Chris Campbell.
Bitcoin sits a little over $83,000 this morning &mdash; better than a few days ago but still sucking wind by late 2024-early 2025 standards.
&ldquo;Every time this happens,&rdquo; says Chris, &ldquo;we have two groups of people:
<ol>
<li>&ldquo;The ones who panic, sell at the bottom, swear off crypto forever and then buy back in at the next all-time high like clockwork.</li>
<li>&ldquo;The ones who rub their hands together, mutter &lsquo;thank you&rsquo; and quietly accumulate at fire-sale prices.&rdquo;</li>
</ol>
Yes, Chris is in the latter group.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> &ldquo;The fundamentals of crypto have never been stronger,&rdquo; he says.
Begin with the action in Washington, D.C. &ldquo;While everyone stares at red charts, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency just reversed its stance on banks interacting with crypto. (That&rsquo;s like the Vatican not only admitting Galileo was right but also announcing a space program to colonize Mars.)
&ldquo;Meanwhile, the SEC just quietly dropped lawsuits against Coinbase, Kraken and Uniswap.
&ldquo;The Senate just shot down the IRS&rsquo; attempt to force DeFi protocols to collect Social Security numbers. Imagine trying to make a vending machine check your ID before dispensing a Snickers bar.
&ldquo;A year ago, crypto looked like it was gearing up for an extinction-level event. Now? It&rsquo;s eerily quiet.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> And yet, &ldquo;Right now, people are buying put options (bets that the market will keep crashing) at record highs,&rdquo; says Chris.
&ldquo;You know when put options were also at record highs?
<ul>
<li>&ldquo;August 2015. Bitcoin went up 87X</li>
<li>&ldquo;March 2020. Bitcoin went up 10X</li>
<li>&ldquo;November 2022. Bitcoin went up &rdquo;</li>
</ul>
Yes, there could be a further drop from current levels. But Chris urges you to consider this: &ldquo;In any given year, Bitcoin&rsquo;s biggest gains come from just 10 days. Miss those and you miss the majority of the upside.
&ldquo;Every time crypto crashes, people say it&rsquo;s dead. Every time, it comes roaring back.
<ul>
<li>&ldquo;2013 crash? Dead</li>
<li>&ldquo;2017 crash? Dead</li>
<li>&ldquo;2020 crash? Dead</li>
<li>&ldquo;2022 crash? Dead.</li>
</ul>
&ldquo;And yet here we are. Bitcoin is still here. The altcoin market is still here. And the ones who ignored the fear and kept buying are the ones who ended up with life-changing gains.&rdquo;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5_2x-new.png 2x" alt="5" width="37" />Mailbag: Precious Metals, DST
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;Hey Dave, about a week ago you had mentioned looking for silver as well as the miners moving up to confirm the increase of the price of gold,&rdquo; a reader writes.
&ldquo;I want to ask if/when we do get that confirmation, what do you expect the moves in gold to look like? Hundreds of dollars of gains? $1,000? Should we expect the charts to mimic a crypto memecoin's percent gains? Just what sort of future is in the realm of plausibilities?&rdquo;
Dave responds: Price targets are always dicey things.
But one of the experts we follow outside Paradigm is a fellow named Don Durrett, who&rsquo;s been investing in mining stocks for 35 years. He says if we can get to $35 silver and 350 on the HUI index of mining stocks &mdash; and stay there &mdash; that&rsquo;s likely the signal that a breakout is underway.
Note that I said &ldquo;and stay there.&rdquo; The HUI touched 350 for a nanosecond last October. That doesn&rsquo;t count. Checking our screens, we see the HUI above 348. Another test might be coming this week&hellip;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />A week past time change, readers still wish to weigh in on daylight saving time&hellip;
Responding to a comment in Friday&rsquo;s mailbag, a reader writes, &ldquo;Obviously, the person has no issue reading. Issue appears to be comprehending. (Probably, sleep deprived &mdash; like the rest of us).
<a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/deal-of-the-decade#3">&ldquo;Your piece</a> did a great job of outlining the madness of DST yet why it keeps &lsquo;winning.&rsquo; Keeps winning because money wins out nearly every time.&rdquo;
One more comment: &ldquo;Dave, on the off chance (9%) that someone is interested in novel thoughts: DST (summertime) makes no sense near the equator because the length of days does not vary much. Nor at high latitudes (Edmonton, Edinburgh) because the days are so short in winter and so long in summer that shifting cannot do much.
&ldquo;It is only at mid-latitudes the temptation arises, mostly to deprive clock-people of morning light and give them more in evenings. These latitudes are also infested with bossy-boots.&rdquo;
Dave: Yeah, time change is mostly a North American and European thing. You don&rsquo;t see it much in Asia &mdash; although China&rsquo;s single time zone across the entire country seems bonkers in its own way!
Best regards,
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/signatures/dave-gonigam.png" alt="Dave Gonigam" width="250px" align="left" />
Dave Gonigam Managing editor, Paradigm Pressroom's 5 Bullets

shutterstock 2263768157

Our James Altucher says Huang is getting a lifeline tomorrow… from none other than Elon Musk.

Elon Throws Nvidia a Lifeline

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1_2x-new.png 2x" alt="1" width="37" />Elon&rsquo;s Warning Shot
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Sam Altman and OpenAI are scared&hellip; uh, well, I was about to use a crude term describing an empty colon, but this is a PG e-letter.
&ldquo;OpenAI is asking the U.S. government to make it easier for AI companies to learn from copyrighted material, citing a need to &lsquo;strengthen America&rsquo;s lead&rsquo; globally in advancing the technology,&rdquo; reports NBC News.
The company issued a 15-page plea to the Trump administration yesterday. The gist is that copyright law is making it inconvenient for OpenAI to continue sucking up the entire contents of the internet to train its large language models.
Thus, OpenAI says the U.S. government must clear various and sundry copyright barriers or else the People&rsquo;s Republic of China will eat OpenAI&rsquo;s lunch.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> OK, OpenAI tries to put it in more altruistic and patriotic terms than I just did: &ldquo;If the PRC&rsquo;s developers have unfettered access to data and American companies are left without fair use access, the race for AI is effectively over.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Fair use&rdquo; is the doctrine in U.S. law that allows journalists and writers to cite snippets of other people&rsquo;s work without running afoul of copyright &mdash; for example, my brief excerpt of an NBC News web article above.
The doctrine would not apply if I were to copy and paste the entire article &mdash; even if I gave NBC proper attribution.
And yet OpenAI insists on unfettered access to the entire article with no attribution &mdash; and if it doesn&rsquo;t get that access, it says China will strangle the American AI industry.
&ldquo;Applying the fair use doctrine to AI,&rdquo; says the OpenAI document, &ldquo;is not only a matter of American competitiveness &mdash; it&rsquo;s a matter of national security.&rdquo;
Oh, so China will drain us of our precious bodily fluids, too! 
OpenAI&rsquo;s plea is absurd. &ldquo;In order to compete with China, OpenAI needs to steal all our content,&rdquo; tweets Jason Calacanis &mdash; the angel investor and co-host of the All In podcast.
&ldquo;Give me a ****ing break. Just pay us a license. Your nonprofit is worth $350 billion and you&rsquo;re making $10 billion a year!&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> This latest development puts a new spin on the news about Elon Musk&rsquo;s bid for OpenAI.
As you might recall, Musk led a consortium of investors last month in offering to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI for $97.4 billion.
OpenAI and Sam Altman turned down the offer instantly. As we said at the time, the offer made no sense &mdash; OpenAI is surely worth more than what Musk and crew were offering.
But Paradigm AI authority James Altucher says it wasn&rsquo;t a serious offer as much as it was a &ldquo;warning shot.&rdquo;
Essentially, Musk gave OpenAI one friendly offer to cash out &mdash; before he disrupts the AI industry with the most powerful AI ever.
James calls this new venture &ldquo;Elon&rsquo;s Endgame&rdquo; &mdash; because once it goes online, it will pose a huge threat to OpenAI as well as Microsoft and Google. &ldquo;According to my sources,&rdquo; James tells us, &ldquo;this groundbreaking technology could finally go online on March 18.&rdquo;
That&rsquo;s next Tuesday. And in a fascinating twist to the story, James believes Elon&rsquo;s Endgame could propel one small AI firm to a 50X return by next year. For sure, you&rsquo;ll want to watch James&rsquo; new video before then &mdash; <a href="https://pro.paradigm-press.info/m/2421703">here&rsquo;s the link</a>.

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2_2x-new.png 2x" alt="2" width="37" />Gold $3K
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />While the U.S. stock market has sunk 10% in three weeks&hellip; gold has surpassed $3,000 for the first time.
It didn&rsquo;t last long &mdash; checking our screens the bid is back to $2,983 &mdash; but a milestone is a milestone.
Credit where it&rsquo;s due: At the start of 2024, when gold was going for $2,064, Paradigm&rsquo;s income-and-value maven Zach Scheidt stuck his neck out and forecast $3,000 gold &mdash; a nearly 50% increase &mdash; by year-end. Zach was off by less than three months. Not bad!
If you wish to explore the whys and wherefores of how gold rose so far so fast, our recovering investment banker Sean Ring unpacked it nicely <a href="https://rudeawakening.info/posts/a-monster-run-on-gold">in today&rsquo;s </a><a href="https://rudeawakening.info/posts/a-monster-run-on-gold">Rude Awakening</a>. Meanwhile, our chart hound Greg Guenthner puts the rise in dramatically visual form.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/2Fnu9U0UmBzHwP1HGiovXA/f9635cc107af75a17e38e74ec7fba5a2/5Bullets_ChartTemplate_0324.png" alt="Another New All-Time High" width="540px" />
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> &ldquo;Perhaps most investors will consider gold a missed opportunity now that it&rsquo;s trading above $3K. I don&rsquo;t,&rdquo; says Greg.
&ldquo;History teaches us not to underestimate gold&rsquo;s upside potential. The yellow rock climbed roughly 650% during the last commodity boom. A comparable rally this time around would see the shiny rock dancing to the tune of $8K.&rdquo; His near-term target is $3,300.
Silver sits at $33.51 this morning &mdash; still about a buck below its 2024 high. &ldquo;A break above last year's high will likely send silver screaming to $40,&rdquo; says Greg.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> The stock market is set to end this week the way it ended last week &mdash; up on the day, but down on a Monday&ndash;Friday basis.
All the major indexes are solidly in the green &mdash; the S&amp;P 500 up 1.75% to 5,618 after sinking into 10% &ldquo;correction&rdquo; territory at yesterday&rsquo;s close. The Dow&rsquo;s gains are a little weaker, the Nasdaq&rsquo;s a little stronger.
<blockquote>➢ For the record: There will be no &ldquo;partial government shutdown&rdquo; at midnight tonight; Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer figures Democrats lack the political capital to put up a fight at the moment.</blockquote>
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> The lone economic number of the day is a huge downside surprise: The University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey stunk up the joint with a reading of 57.9, in contrast with Wall Street expectations of 64.0. The number hasn&rsquo;t been this low since late 2022.
Ordinarily we don&rsquo;t mention this report because often it&rsquo;s just a reflection of whether the stock market is up or down &mdash; and of course it&rsquo;s been down lately. But a &ldquo;miss&rdquo; of this scale is worth noting.
We also give this survey the side-eye because frequently it&rsquo;s a political Rorschach test &mdash; Republicans happy when Republicans are in charge and so on. But in this instance the keepers of the survey report that across the board, Republicans, Democrats and independents &ldquo;are in agreement that the outlook has weakened since February.&rdquo;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3_2x-new.png 2x" alt="3" width="37" />The War on Cash, Border Edition
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Suddenly it&rsquo;s a lot harder to transact with cash near the U.S. border with Mexico.
As perhaps you&rsquo;re aware, federal law has long required banks to report all cash transactions over $10,000, in an effort to crack down on drug dealing, &ldquo;money laundering,&rdquo; etc.
It&rsquo;s a huge burden for many small businesses that rely on cash-paying customers &mdash; especially since small-business insurance policies typically limit coverage for theft or other loss of cash to $10,000.
Now comes word from the Treasury Department that in 30 ZIP codes along the U.S.-Mexico border, that $10,000 threshold has been lowered to&hellip; $200.
The new requirement &ldquo;underscores our deep concern with the significant risk to the U.S. financial system of the cartels, drug traffickers and other criminal actors along the Southwest border,&rdquo; says a statement from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Looking closely at the press release from FinCEN &mdash; the Treasury&rsquo;s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network &mdash; it seems the order applies primarily to &ldquo;money services businesses.&rdquo;
According to the IRS, &ldquo;An MSB is generally any person offering check cashing; foreign currency exchange services; or selling money orders, travelers' checks or pre-paid access (formerly stored value) products; for an amount greater than $1,000 per person, per day, in one or more transactions.&rdquo;
Well, let&rsquo;s hope it doesn&rsquo;t apply to banks anytime a customer just wants to take out $200 from an ATM, right?
Prediction: This requirement is starting at the border&hellip; but it won&rsquo;t stay there. Consider yourself warned.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4_2x-new.png 2x" alt="4" width="37" />Treehouse of (Bureaucratic) Horrors
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Because the city of Los Angeles has solved all its other problems&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/4AKIfBg2vWtlaS11QFDTjP/15a052fc6832da164e6631d2493990e2/Post-Tweet.png" alt="new york post tweet" width="540px" />
An elaborate treehouse that&rsquo;s been part of the landscape in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood for 24 years is no more.
&ldquo;&lsquo;The Simpsons&rsquo; producer Rick Polizzi built the treehouse, dubbed Boney Island, in his front yard as a playhouse for his daughters,&rdquo; reports the Los Angeles Times. &ldquo;He says it&rsquo;s become a quirky local landmark loved by the neighborhood children and visited by celebrities such as Halle Berry, Christina Aguilera and Will Ferrell.&rdquo;
You know where this is all going, right?
The trouble began in 2017 when a neighbor snitched to the city, upset with the way the treehouse was decorated for Halloween and drawing spectators. Yeah, once a year.
&ldquo;For the last eight years, Polizzi has fought to keep the three-story structure standing, spending more than $50,000 on legal fees and zoning permits.&rdquo;
And to no avail. Demolition began last Saturday.
&ldquo;After all this treehouse stuff, I&rsquo;m just totally burned out on the city, and politics,&rdquo; Polizzi tells the New York Post. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m just getting tired of the rat race here. The rats are winning, so I want to get out.&rdquo; He&rsquo;s looking to sell and move back to his native New Orleans.
He hopes the victims of the LA wildfires looking to rebuild have better luck with the bureaucracy than he did: &ldquo;If the fire victims have to go through one-tenth of what we dealt with, they&rsquo;re going to be in a world of trouble, so I hope the city can get it together, because fire victims have been through enough.&rdquo;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5_2x-new.png 2x" alt="5" width="37" />Mailbag: DOGE and DST
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;A one-month federal expenditure metric is hardly a valid scoring sheet for the effectiveness of DOGE,&rdquo; a reader writes after yesterday&rsquo;s edition. &ldquo;Eventually it might be.
&ldquo;Most of what DOGE has really done so far is initiate some layoffs, which don't take effect for three&ndash;seven months and may include bonuses, or identify fraud, waste and abuse contracts. Many of the identified contracts have already been executed with payments and obligations that are difficult to stop overnight. The next or follow-on contract can certainly be killed off, but federal contracts are subject to many enforceable regulations including the FAR, or federal acquisition regulation.
&ldquo;Assigning a &lsquo;grade&rsquo; to DOGE's effectiveness yet is like blaming Trump for current inflation or grocery prices. We all know that economic changes including Fed actions take months or years to fully show themselves in the economy. Yes, there are some short-term indicators, but the final grade will be months in developing.
&ldquo;There may well be some short-term pain for long-term gain. The problem for Trump is that if his policies do include a recession, or close to it, he better hope that the improvements are evident before the midterm elections in 2026.
&ldquo;Still love the 5 Bullets!&rdquo;
Dave responds: I didn&rsquo;t assign a grade; I just said DOGE&rsquo;s impact hasn&rsquo;t shown up yet in the monthly Treasury statement. If and when that impact shows up, I&rsquo;ll chronicle it here.
Now riddle me this: With Congress set to pass another &ldquo;continuing resolution&rdquo; instead of an honest-to-God budget&hellip; the U.S. Agency for International Development will get its full Biden-era appropriation even though the Trump administration is shutting down the joint. What will happen to that money?
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve lived in Asia for the last 25 years where we don&rsquo;t have that daylight saving time crap. People just get on with their lives,&rdquo; writes our final correspondent.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s as simple as: Summer has longer days, shorter nights. Winter longer nights, shorter days.
&ldquo;None of this panicking about losing an hour in March, running late for work and the opposite in October.
&ldquo;Keep up the wonderful work you do. I enjoy my dose of Dave Gonigam&rsquo;s sense of humor and cynicism each day.&rdquo;
Dave: I&rsquo;m glad someone does.
Have a good weekend,
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/signatures/dave-gonigam.png" alt="Dave Gonigam" width="250px" align="left" />
Dave Gonigam Managing editor, Paradigm Pressroom's 5 Bullets

shutterstock 2306049297

OpenAI says copyright law is wrecking its business model. But that’s the least of its worries...

Elon’s Warning Shot

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1_2x-new.png 2x" alt="1" width="37" />Is Elon Distracted?
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> An interesting narrative has taken hold in the media in recent days&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/2RKoNnVLDhQ2ZwLg4s0TC8/53c9e5fd7206aa8600d34f152402d6d9/Benzinga2.png" alt="benzinga" width="540px" /> <img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/7Fn2XqLRUv1cRd3uUCYoM5/2af820746096d5d9969d043338b3c9ad/NYT2.png" alt="nyt" width="540px" /> <img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/3HnzelIaJ02UVbY4jsRi8F/f69536abd0a88d15e69c8738b29da960/SeekingAlpha.png" alt="seeking alpha" width="540px" />
The New York Times is representative of the vibe: &ldquo;Elon Musk is facing questions about how much attention he is paying to his businesses as he advises President Trump on the direction of the federal government.&rdquo;
Most of the focus is on publicly traded Tesla &mdash; down an eye-watering 48% from its all-time highs in December. Monday brought a one-day drop of 15% &ldquo;amid concerns that include declining electric vehicle sales and politically driven protests against the manufacturer,&rdquo; says the NYT.
(More about the latter of those two issues tomorrow&hellip;)
To be sure, Musk has a lot of irons in the fire &mdash; Tesla, X, xAI, SpaceX, Boring, Neuralink&hellip;
But that&rsquo;s always been the case. Are the DOGE efforts that he added to his plate after Election Day that much more of a &ldquo;distraction&rdquo;?
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> To whatever extent Musk is &ldquo;distracted&rdquo; these days, it&rsquo;s not by DOGE. It&rsquo;s by something else altogether.
If you belong to the Paradigm Mastermind Group, you already know what we&rsquo;re talking about. Our AI authority James Altucher calls it &ldquo;Elon&rsquo;s endgame.&rdquo;
&ldquo;I believe that right now, Elon Musk is quietly executing the final phase of a master plan that no one&rsquo;s talking about&hellip; and I&rsquo;m confident this will be the venture that crowns Elon as the world&rsquo;s first trillionaire.&rdquo;
According to James&rsquo; sources, this groundbreaking AI technology &mdash; up to 9,000% more powerful than current AI systems &mdash; could finally go online on Tuesday March 18. That&rsquo;s only five days from now.
The undertaking is so big, Musk is going in on it with none other than AI chip leader Nvidia. And James figures on Tuesday, the world will learn about a third player in the venture &mdash; a $1 billion AI company that he believes could surge 50X by next year.

James just uploaded a video laying out the opportunity at hand. <a href="https://pro.paradigm-press.info/m/2420996">Click here to learn about &ldquo;Elon&rsquo;s Endgame&rdquo; before it becomes headline news next week</a>.

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2_2x-new.png 2x" alt="2" width="37" />DOGE and the D.C. Budget Follies
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Speaking of DOGE, it hasn&rsquo;t accomplished squat yet &mdash; not if the U.S. Treasury&rsquo;s own figures are any indication.
Around the middle of every month, the Treasury issues a monthly statement of its income and outflows for the previous calendar month.
We ignored the February report because Donald Trump was president for only one-third of January. So the March report, issued yesterday afternoon, would be our first indication of how much government excess the DOGE boys are hacking away at.
Answer: Not much.
Here are the numbers and the comparisons with February of last year&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/7r8k6d8SYKnwAJsxsApBl0/82f6022183d2f782b9787d9487b218cb/5Bullets_DogeDisappointment_031325.png" alt="doge disappointment" width="540px" />
In fact, Uncle Sam registered the highest February spending ever &mdash; even exceeding Joe Biden&rsquo;s first full month in office, February 2021. And Biden had the pandemic as an excuse.
But don&rsquo;t take it from us, take it from the conservative Manhattan Institute. &ldquo;DOGE savings are so small as not to be identifiable in monthly spending totals,&rdquo; the think tank&rsquo;s Jessica Riedl tells the Financial Times.
The Trump administration&rsquo;s defenders would tell you &mdash; and they have a point &mdash; that spending is authorized by Congress. As the narrative goes, progress will come over time as the White House works together with a Republican-controlled House and Senate.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> But that narrative doesn&rsquo;t account for the spend-a-palooza the Republican-controlled House passed this week.
Fiscal year 2025 started nearly six months ago, but Congress still hasn&rsquo;t passed a budget. All it&rsquo;s passed is a series of kick-the-can &ldquo;continuing resolutions&rdquo; &mdash; rubber-stamping previous spending levels, with a few adjustments here and there, for a few weeks or months at a time.
On Monday, the House passed another &ldquo;CR,&rdquo; this one buying time until the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.
&ldquo;DOGE is fake if Congress continues to appropriate money at the same levels as before DOGE. It's smoke and mirrors,&rdquo; tweets Daniel McAdams, who was one of Rep. Ron Paul&rsquo;s senior aides until Paul&rsquo;s retirement in 2013.
This latest CR passed with only one dissenting Republican vote. House Speaker Mike Johnson is exercising an iron discipline over his caucus that Nancy Pelosi undoubtedly recognizes and respects.
The lone dissenter, the cantankerous Kentuckian Thomas Massie &mdash; the closest thing to Ron Paul in Congress today &mdash; called BS on the whole charade: &ldquo;Congress just locked in a large portion of the Biden agenda for the first nine months of Trump&rsquo;s presidency.&rdquo;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/5cs9DuwawIn8sy8IVgaijW/a22a5cd2d2021c16e3bbfa21cd881c1c/ThomasTweet.png" alt="thomas tweet" width="540px" />
The measure still needs to pass the Senate, with at least a handful of Democratic votes, to avert a &ldquo;partial government shutdown&rdquo; Friday night. It appears those Democratic votes aren&rsquo;t forthcoming, at least not without some concessions from the Republicans.
Just guessing here, but those concessions probably won&rsquo;t involve spending cuts.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Amid this circus, Donald Trump has chosen to go on a jihad against&hellip; Thomas Massie.
&ldquo;HE SHOULD BE PRIMARIED, and I will lead the charge against him,&rdquo; Trump bellowed on Monday.
This isn&rsquo;t the first time. Trump went after Massie in 2020 for throwing up a roadblock to passage of CARES Act, the first of the gazillion-dollar COVID spending bills. Indeed every two years, special interests line up primary candidates against Massie &mdash; and every time Massie knocks them down like bowling pins.
This time, however, Trump risks alienating a critical mass of his 2024 voters, says Natali Morris &mdash; co-host of the Redacted podcast.
&ldquo;Let it be known,&rdquo; she tweets, &ldquo;that @RepThomasMassie is Peanut the Squirrel to the independents who brought the Republicans the White House and the majority. Do not bring this fight to us. No one will benefit from this.&rdquo;
At least the fight is good for some quality memes&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/1MM2ZMoFgAdIHvy1AbQyj0/39ceb582dea1a7f8650be4486576e867/ResistMainstream.png" alt="resist mainstream" width="540px" />
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3_2x-new.png 2x" alt="3" width="37" />The Worst Is Over?
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />At least by one metric, the worst should be over for the stock market this year.
Figures from Carson Investment Research show that going back to 2005, the average date the stock market puts in a bottom for the year is March 12 &mdash; which in 2025 was yesterday.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/3JaC6UKxJzpvmgGUS2VxM9/9261fb5f9b63931b864cc18ea9e29881/RyanTweet2.png" alt="ryan tweet" width="540px" />
That&rsquo;s interesting when you consider the data set includes 2008 (global financial crisis) and 2020 (COVID crash).
That said, those years weren&rsquo;t the only outliers. Only three years ago in 2022 the market bottomed in mid-October. By year-end the S&amp;P had taken a 12-month tumble of nearly 20% and many tech stocks fell even harder.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> For the moment, the S&amp;P 500 is on track to end today at a year-to-date low. At last check, it&rsquo;s down a half percent to 5,566.
The Dow&rsquo;s losses are narrower, the Nasdaq&rsquo;s deeper. The Nasdaq sits at six-month lows.
Yesterday&rsquo;s gains appear to be a one-off and not the start of something: &ldquo;I did not see evidence of enthusiastic buyers stepping in on Wednesday,&rdquo; says Paradigm chart hound Greg Guenthner. &ldquo;Until the market proves us otherwise, I still consider this to be a relief rally, and nothing more.&rdquo;
Among the big movers today, Intel is up 15% &mdash; not on an Apple takeover as James Altucher <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/deal-of-the-decade">mused</a> here on Monday, but on the appointment of a new CEO. He&rsquo;s Lip-Bu Tan, who engineered a turnaround at another chipmaker, Cadence Design Systems. Tan also served on Intel&rsquo;s board from 2022&ndash;2024.
The tariff threat of the day features the president proposing 200% duties on booze imports from the European Union &mdash; a level so steep that no importer would even bother bringing in such products, says one observer. &ldquo;A company is not going to ship it on a 200% tariff,&rdquo; Needham &amp; Co. analyst Gerald Pascarelli tells Yahoo Finance.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />For no obvious reason, precious metals are rallying strong &mdash; gold up $33, approaching record territory at $2,967 and silver at $33.46.
The rally began as soon as the Labor Department released the wholesale inflation numbers for February, which came in cooler than expected &mdash; flat month-over-month and up 3.2% year-over-year. Perhaps the thinking is that numbers like these will clear the way for the Federal Reserve to resume its rate-cutting cycle sooner rather than later.
Crude is giving up some of yesterday&rsquo;s gains, down nearly 1% and barely holding onto the $67 level.
Bitcoin continues bumping around in the low-$80Ks.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4_2x-new.png 2x" alt="4" width="37" /> Slashing the Rainforest to Stop Climate Change
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Took long enough, but climate change has jumped the shark&hellip;
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/1vOgnCLBkwysrpSYlhypSi/c8b69aecea8dab13ca3346e2b2dd36af/VictoriaTweet.png" alt="victoria tweet" width="540px" />
Yep, this year&rsquo;s United Nations climate summit will take place in Belem, Brazil &mdash; a location so far-flung that it requires slashing through Amazon rainforest to build a road sufficient to accommodate the 50,000 attendees.
&ldquo;Along the partially built road, lush rainforest towers on either side,&rdquo; reports the BBC &mdash; &ldquo;a reminder of what was once there. Logs are piled high in the cleared land which stretches more than eight miles through the rainforest into Belem.&rdquo;
The state government of Para is trying to sell the project as a &ldquo;sustainable highway&rdquo;... but the locals aren&rsquo;t buying it.
"Our harvest has already been cut down. We no longer have that income to support our family,&rdquo; says Claudio Verequete &mdash; who used to harvest aca&iacute; berries on territory now occupied by the highway. He&rsquo;s drawing down his savings to get by, seeing as he&rsquo;s gotten zip for compensation from the government.
Right, but there will be bike lanes! And solar lighting! It&rsquo;s green, dontcha see?
I mean, there&rsquo;s nothing we can add. The lunacy/hypocrisy speaks for itself, and so we move on&hellip;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5_2x-new.png 2x" alt="5" width="37" />Mailbag: Daylight Time
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Your editor&rsquo;s latest rant against daylight saving time <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/deal-of-the-decade">in Monday&rsquo;s edition</a> brought pushback from a reader who writes in now and then&hellip;
&ldquo;Please explain to me how the sunrise at 4:30 a.m. allows me to get more sleep than a 5:30 a.m. sunrise &mdash; since you seem to agree the sunrise is the natural way to wake up, works really well for the chimps in the jungle.
&ldquo;The standard time lovers talk like we still live in caves. We now have a thing called artificial light. Farmers have many of them, including me. What is good for the people in San Diego is not good for the people in Seattle. It is not one size fits all.
&ldquo;DST will stay for at least eight months out of the year, if not more. This battle ended decades ago. DST won.
&ldquo;And one more thing: Obesity is the No. 1 reason for heart disease and strokes, not waking up in a different time zone. I expect better research.&rdquo;
Dave: Please explain to me how it makes any rational sense that the artificial light I did not need at 7:00 a.m. last week I suddenly need again at 7:00 a.m. this week.
Humans are adaptable, but they&rsquo;re not that adaptable. In addition to the car crashes, heart attacks and workplace injuries that spike the week after time change, the stress of the adjustment ravages your immune system. I managed to avoid an oncoming cold this week only by firebombing my innards with liposomal vitamin C.
For visual evidence that year-round standard time is the superior solution, cartographer Andy Woodruff compiled this infographic a few years ago. (Click to enlarge.) In short, year-round standard time gives the most people the most opportunitiesfor a sensible sunrise time before 7:00 a.m.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/4VX5WTJ6j81WxM35zCOuB7/6db3f942a700594e423ddd3942f1b217/DaylightSavings2.png" alt="daylight savings" width="540px" />
In any event, the president is going back on his pledge for the GOP to &ldquo;use its best efforts to eliminate daylight saving time.&rdquo; More&rsquo;s the pity&hellip;
Best regards,
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/signatures/dave-gonigam.png" alt="Dave Gonigam" width="250px" align="left" />
Dave Gonigam Managing editor, Paradigm Pressroom's 5 Bullets

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To whatever extent Musk is “distracted” these days, it’s not by DOGE. It’s by something else altogether.

Is Elon Distracted? 

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1_2x-new.png 2x" alt="1" width="37" />Crypto: &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t Fight City Hall&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Against the electrifying backdrop of SXSW in Austin, Texas, Paradigm&rsquo;s iconoclast investor James Altucher hosted a spirited event to discuss the pivotal tech investments poised to define 2025.
For three immersive hours, James and his team of expert analysts tackled a barrage of questions from an engaged audience &mdash; spanning the spectrum from crypto&rsquo;s choppy trajectory to biotech&rsquo;s transformative potential and the ever-evolving dynamics of global trade.
In case you missed our FREE Tech Turning Point 2025 event yesterday, today&rsquo;s recap provides an exclusive sneak peek.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/2UnlV3OBuIKpmUqZ8r3cp9/8575f51c49142a8d470c694bdce3ac53/SXSW.png" alt="SXSW" width="450px" />
But for the full scope of insights and strategies &mdash; plus specific tickers &mdash; viewers are strongly encouraged to watch the replay. (More on that in a moment.)
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Amidst prevailing market jitters, James underscores a crucial statistic: Bitcoin is up 80% from its 52-week low.
&ldquo;Crypto feels like it's crashing,&rdquo; he acknowledges, &ldquo;but Bitcoin is 80% off the lows.&rdquo; His core message is clear: Resist panic and maintain a long-term perspective.
Pointing to the U.S. government&rsquo;s evolving stance on cryptocurrency, James emphasizes the growing recognition of Bitcoin as a strategic asset.
The potential implications of government accumulation, he argues, could be transformative, driving Bitcoin&rsquo;s value to unprecedented heights. (Bitcoin $1 million?)
Referencing the time-honored market adage &ldquo;Don't fight City Hall,&rdquo; James posits that aligning with governmental interests can be a strategic advantage in the crypto sphere.
Further bolstering this optimistic outlook, he notes the recent regulatory shift allowing banks to take custody of Bitcoin, a move that signals growing institutional acceptance and maturity within the crypto market.
&ldquo;This is a huge bullish sign for crypto,&rdquo; James adds.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> As for overall market jitters, James offers an historical perspective, reminding that market downturns are often followed by periods of robust growth and opportunity.
Citing examples including the 1987 stock market crash, the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the 2008 financial crisis, he emphasizes that periods of fear and uncertainty often present attractive buying opportunities for astute investors.
&ldquo;The 10 biggest days in market history happened during bear markets,&rdquo; James notes, encouraging investors to view the current uncertainty as a chance to acquire assets at discounted prices.
He emphasizes that now is the time to look for opportunity, not to drop out of the market.
James references famed 20th-century investor Bernard Baruch who famously quipped: &ldquo;I bought too early and sold too soon.&rdquo; Thus, James encourages investors to resist the temptation to time the market and to embrace a long-term investment horizon.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2_2x-new.png 2x" alt="2" width="37" />Trump&rsquo;s Tariff Tango
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />James also challenges conventional economic wisdom, arguing that tariffs are not inherently inflationary. 
Instead, he presents them as strategic instruments designed to fortify supply chains and facilitate geopolitical negotiations.
Citing the example of tariffs imposed on Chinese chips, which spurred Taiwan Semiconductor&rsquo;s substantial investment in U.S.-based manufacturing facilities, he illustrates how tariffs can incentivize domestic production and enhance economic resilience.
&ldquo;Tariffs by themselves do not cause inflation,&rdquo; James asserts. &ldquo;These things are not to generate revenue but are strategic negotiating points.&rdquo;
Drawing a distinction between the current tariff landscape and the protectionist measures of the 1930s &mdash; such as the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act &mdash; James emphasizes the targeted and strategic nature of contemporary tariffs.
Unlike the broad-based tariffs of the Smoot-Hawley era, which exacerbated the Great Depression, James argues these tariffs are focused on specific industries and are designed to address specific geopolitical concerns.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3_2x-new.png 2x" alt="3" width="37" />Two Controversial Catalysts?
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Paradigm&rsquo;s team of experts delve into Elon Musk&rsquo;s ambitious construction of the AI supercomputer &ldquo;Colossus&rdquo; in Memphis, Tennessee. 
Equipped initially with 100,000 Nvidia H100 chips &mdash; now doubled to 200,000, with plans to scale to 1 million &mdash; this supercomputer is poised to unlock unprecedented AI capabilities, potentially revolutionizing industries and reshaping the technological landscape.
This initiative aligns with DOGE&rsquo;s efforts to modernize the federal government, with Musk leveraging his technological prowess to enhance efficiency and drive innovation within the public sector.
&ldquo;He understands how to create new technologies, faster, cheaper and more efficiently,&rdquo; James points out, emphasizing Musk&rsquo;s unique ability to drive innovation within traditionally bureaucratic systems.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> The panel discussion pivoted to examining the influence of RFK Jr. on the biotech industry.
While acknowledging Kennedy&rsquo;s controversial public image, the panelists observe that his focus on health advocacy has spurred innovation and investment in the biotech sector.
James chimes in: Regardless of what you think of the new secretary of Health and Human Services, more people are getting interested in and, therefore, investing in the biotech space.
&ldquo;RFK Jr. is creating new interest in the biotech industry,&rdquo; Paradigm&rsquo;s science-and-tech expert Ray Blanco remarks, highlighting the potential for Kennedy&rsquo;s advocacy to drive further advancements in medical research and health care solutions.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4_2x-new.png 2x" alt="4" width="37" />Unlocking the Full Replay
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />This recap provides a tantalizing glimpse into the wealth of knowledge shared at the Paradigm&rsquo;s Tech Turning Point 2025. But&hellip; 
To gain access to the specific tickers James and his team are monitoring&hellip; the comprehensive analysis underpinning their predictions&hellip; and the full scope of their 2025 outlook, we strongly encourage you to watch the replay.
Which includes&hellip;
<ul>
<li>James' Top Quantum Play: Uncover the quantum investment that James believes will deliver exponential returns</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The Premier Cryptocurrencies for Growth: Identify the digital assets best positioned for substantial gains</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Capitalizing on Political Shifts: Learn how to leverage changing political dynamics to unlock lucrative investment opportunities</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Uncover Five Long-Term Plays: Access five promising tickers handpicked by the Paradigm team for enduring wealth creation.</li>
</ul>
By viewing the replay, gain a decisive edge in today&rsquo;s rapidly evolving markets and position your portfolio for success in the face of technological disruptions and economic transformations.
James and his team of expert analysts want to help set you up for life&hellip;

<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/1hVb6MxLYtJ0R4pK2SJ5W1/18b248e2cc5c0cdb031068c93d33bb64/SXSW2.png" alt="SXSW cheers" width="450px" />

Cheers! It wouldn&rsquo;t be a Paradigm event without the &ldquo;Whiskey Bar&rdquo; Find out what everyone&rsquo;s drinking&hellip;
Don&rsquo;t miss this chance to tap into the collective wisdom of Paradigm&rsquo;s team of experts. <a href="https://paradigmpressgroup.com/techturningpoint2025">Watch the replay now</a> and chart your course forward. <a href="https://paradigmpressgroup.com/techturningpoint2025">Join James and the rest of his Paradigm team!</a>
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5_2x-new.png 2x" alt="5" width="37" />Inflation Check as Stocks Stabilize
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Before we go, we&rsquo;ll take Mr. Market&rsquo;s pulse &mdash; starting with the February inflation numbers.
For once, the numbers came in cooler than expected &mdash; up 0.2% month-over-month, which translates to an official year-over-year inflation rate of 2.8%. Helping matters is a slight drop in energy prices compared with a year earlier.
But really, these numbers are nothing to celebrate: A 2.8% inflation rate in February is still higher than 2.4% last September.
Nor will the numbers alter the Federal Reserve&rsquo;s thinking at its next meeting a week from today: The Fed will stand pat as it did in late January, leaving the benchmark fed funds rate at 4.5%.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Whether it&rsquo;s the inflation numbers or just sheer exhaustion from the past few days&rsquo; selling, the major U.S. stock averages are stabilizing for the moment.
The S&amp;P 500 is up a quarter percent on the day at 5,587. The tech-heavy Nasdaq is up nearly 1% while the Dow is down a half percent.
The Dow continues to struggle in the face of ever-changing tariff headlines: Washington will not double its tariff on Canadian steel and aluminum after all, and the Canadian province of Ontario is dropping its new surtax on electricity sent across the U.S. border.
But an across-the-board tariff on all imported steel and aluminum is now in effect and the European Union says it&rsquo;s drawing up a &ldquo;strong but proportionate&rdquo; response while Canada is announcing its own tit-for-tat tariffs on U.S. goods.
Precious metals are holding steady &mdash; gold at $2,918 and silver a nickel shy of $33. Crude continues to rebound from last week&rsquo;s lows, up nearly 2% at $67.51. Bitcoin sits at $81,600.
We&rsquo;ll be back tomorrow, reader, with your daily round of 5 Bullets. Until then, take care!
Best regards,
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/signatures/emily-clancy.png" alt="Emily Clancy" width="250px" align="left" />
Emily Clancy Associate editor, Paradigm Pressroom's 5 Bullets

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Against the electrifying backdrop of SXSW, James Altucher hosted a spirited event to discuss the pivotal tech investments poised to define 2025.

Altucher Uncensored

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Today marks the fifth anniversary of what your editor calls “COVID 9/11.”

COVID 9/11

<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-1_2x-new.png 2x" alt="1" width="37" />Deal of the Decade
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Imagine McDonald&rsquo;s ditching the griddle and adopting flame-broiling for its burgers &mdash; even bringing in experts from Burger King to help with the transition.
Paradigm AI authority James Altucher says that&rsquo;s the best way to think of a rumor that hit the tech space last month.
As the story went, Intel was entertaining a partnership with archrival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. TSMC would send its engineers to Intel&rsquo;s advanced manufacturing facilities, upgrading them to state-of-the-art for the AI age.
&ldquo;Intel's stock experienced its biggest weekly gain in over 40 years of trading history,&rdquo; says James, &ldquo;surging as much as 32% at one point.&rdquo;
And then the buzz faded. INTC trades this morning a little over $20 &mdash; basically where it sat before the rumors began, indeed where it sat back in&hellip; (gulp)... 2013.
End of the story? Hardly.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> &ldquo;Apple just committed to spending a staggering $500 billion in the U.S. over the next four years,&rdquo; says James.
&ldquo;Let that sink in for a moment &mdash; half a trillion dollars.
&ldquo;Most of the headlines focused on Apple's plans to open a server manufacturing facility in Houston and double its U.S. Advanced Manufacturing Fund.
&ldquo;But what if there's something bigger brewing beneath the surface?&rdquo;
And he means really, really big&hellip;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;What if Apple is eyeing Intel as an acquisition target?&rdquo; James asks.
&ldquo;It sounds crazy at first, but the more you look at it, the more it starts to make sense.
&ldquo;Over the past decade, Apple has gradually made moves to reduce their dependence on outside suppliers.
&ldquo;This began with the company&rsquo;s decision to design their own processors for iPhones, iPads and Macs with the highly successful M-series chips. Just last week, Apple announced the C1, their first in-house cellular modem.
&ldquo;With $54 billion in cash, Apple certainly has the financial firepower to make a big move. And Intel, despite its troubles, still possesses world-class manufacturing capabilities and a treasure trove of chip patents.
&ldquo;For Apple, acquiring Intel would mean bringing chip production fully under its control &mdash; eliminating reliance on foreign manufacturers like TSM. It would align perfectly with Apple's newly announced commitment to U.S. manufacturing and the billions it's already planning to spend on advanced silicon in TSM's Arizona facility.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> This deal of the decade would also align with the Trump administration&rsquo;s priorities.
In February, Vice President Vance declared that the most sophisticated AI hardware must be &ldquo;made in America.&rdquo;
&ldquo;When it comes to manufacturing advanced chips in the U.S.,&rdquo; says James, &ldquo;no one is further along than Intel. Last month Intel announced that their 18A manufacturing process is ready and they will begin the initial stages of preparing customer orders in the coming months.
&ldquo;18A is expected to help Intel close the gap with TSM and has already received orders from Big Tech companies like Microsoft and Amazon.&rdquo;
And all this at a time when Apple CEO Tim Cook says he&rsquo;s &ldquo;bullish on the future of American innovation."
&ldquo;What could be more innovative,&rdquo; asks James, &ldquo;than backing America's most advanced chip production?&rdquo;
An Apple partnership with Intel, or even an outright acquisition, &ldquo;could represent a generational wealth opportunity.&rdquo;
[Reminder: James and his entire research team have converged on Austin, Texas this week for the annual SXSW gathering.
Tomorrow James and crew will livestream their two-hour <a href="https://paradigmpressgroup.com/techturningpoint2025">Tech Turning Point 2025</a> event &mdash; and it couldn&rsquo;t possibly be more timely. Money is shifting out of the Magnificent 7 stocks and into a new breed of up-and-coming tech leaders. Crypto is facing challenges despite tailwinds from the Trump administration. And speaking of the Trump administration, what do Trump and Elon Musk have up their sleeve?
James and his team will address all of those questions tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. EDT. We won&rsquo;t try to sell you anything during this event. It&rsquo;s strictly for your enlightenment and enjoyment. <a href="https://paradigmpressgroup.com/techturningpoint2025">You can review the agenda at this link</a>. That link is also where you can find the live event tomorrow, so go ahead and bookmark it.]
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-2_2x-new.png 2x" alt="2" width="37" />NOW They&rsquo;re Talking About a Recession?
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Whether it&rsquo;s the president refusing to rule out a recession (the mainstream explanation) or an ongoing reset for a market that rose too far, too fast&hellip; Mr. Market is mashing the &ldquo;sell&rdquo; button today.
At last check, the S&amp;P 500 is down 2% to 5,649 &mdash; a level last seen nearly six months ago. The index sits 8% below its record close not even three weeks ago. The Dow is holding up better, the Nasdaq worse.
Gold is serving its safe-haven role, continuing to hold onto the $2,900 level. But silver&rsquo;s losing ground, now $32.22. Crude is down modestly at $66.69.
Bitcoin went up, down and all around over the weekend &mdash; and as we write it&rsquo;s in danger of breaking below $80,000 for the first time in four months.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> To be sure, the president and his men are tamping down expectations for the economy.
As you might have heard, Donald Trump himself refused to rule out the possibility of a recession yesterday, describing a &ldquo;period of transition.&rdquo;
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent summoned a better turn of phrase last Friday &mdash; describing a &ldquo;detox period.&rdquo;
As he put it on CNBC, &ldquo;Could we be seeing that this economy that we inherited starting to roll a bit? Sure. And look, there&rsquo;s going to be a natural adjustment as we move away from public spending to private spending.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> None of this should be a shock if you&rsquo;ve been following these missives regularly.
Paradigm macroeconomics maven Jim Rickards has been warning of a recession for months. From the standpoint of the Trump administration, the sooner it arrives the better.
&ldquo;In Ronald Reagan&rsquo;s first term, he inherited a recession from the Carter years,&rdquo; Jim said in this space <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/the-trump-speed-bump">a couple of weeks after Election Day</a>.
&ldquo;This dominated the first few years of his presidency until his policies turned the economy into a robust growth machine.
<a id="3"></a>
&ldquo;We see the incoming Trump presidency seeing a similar timeline. Expect some tough economic times in the first 12&ndash;18 months before a pivot to a strong economy in the second half of the Trump term.&rdquo;
The stock market back then, you wonder? It struggled mightily for the first 18 months of Reagan&rsquo;s administration &mdash; before launching an epic 18-year bull run in August 1982.
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-3_2x-new.png 2x" alt="3" width="37" />Trump Wavers on Time Change
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Hey, whatever happened to this?
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/4xz0Dnqp9mOvbdavMvpbVS/a52f35633396d4a91b6db91f5e8f4fba/TruthDetails.png" alt="truth details" width="540px" />
If your rear end is dragging today, blame it on time change.
&ldquo;There's evidence that regularly changing sleep cycles, associated with daylight saving, lowers productivity and increases heart attacks,&rdquo; economist Allison Schrager wrote in The Atlantic over a decade ago.
For years we&rsquo;ve debunked the claims that daylight saving time conserves energy. Up until 2006, most of Indiana&rsquo;s 92 counties observed year-round standard time &mdash; in sync with New York during the winter and Chicago during the summer. Then the Hoosier state&rsquo;s legislature opted for conformity.
In 2010, researchers from Yale and the University of California, Santa Barbara concluded the energy saved by less indoor lighting during the summer months was offset by an increase in the use of heating and air conditioning. Indeed, daylight saving time contributed to a 1% jump in electricity use.
Over the weekend, The Wall Street Journal spotlighted more recent research finding that &ldquo;in some places daylight-saving time saves electricity, while in others it uses more, with the overall effect across the U.S. basically a wash.&rdquo;
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Evidently time change is still on the Trump administration&rsquo;s radar. Last week, Elon Musk posted an enormously confusing poll on his X platform.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/6EloxTMk4531lg8dyysQIo/67a80e14431215028299cee1083a6555/ElonTweet.png" alt="elon tweet" width="540px" />
The Gallup pollsters did a much more straightforward and presumably more scientific survey finding a majority of Americans wishing to ditch time change &mdash; and a plurality preferring year-round standard time.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://images.ctfassets.net/vha3zb1lo47k/5Xwm2AH4thu5rqz5x20HvR/d380ab1a0edaebbbadf58cd5e179eb6b/DaylightSavings.png" alt="daylight savings" width="540px" />
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />Perhaps someone should bring those poll results to Donald Trump&rsquo;s attention. Asked about the matter last Thursday he appeared to have lost interest &mdash; saying, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a 50-50 issue, and if something&rsquo;s a 50-50 issue it&rsquo;s hard to get excited about it.
&ldquo;A lot of people like it one way, a lot of people like it the other way,&rdquo; he went on to say.
Gee, it almost sounds as if he&rsquo;s running cover for special interests. Read on&hellip;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-4_2x-new.png 2x" alt="4" width="37" />The Truth About Time Change
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />We endure the madness of DST because of special interests &mdash; going all the way back to the Uniform Time Act of 1966.
Contrary to myth, that wasn&rsquo;t done for the benefit of farmers. Indeed farmers &ldquo;now had an hour less of morning light to milk their cows and get goods ready for market,&rdquo; wrote Michael Downing in his 2005 book Spring Forward: The Madness of Daylight Saving Time.
Rather, the mid-1960s change was the doing of Big Oil &mdash; which benefited from higher gasoline consumption during the longer evenings.
But the history doesn&rsquo;t end there. As Cato Institute senior fellow Scott Lincicome wrote in 2021, &ldquo;The gas and fuel industries were then joined by the golf, home improvement and barbecue/patio industries to lobby for the 1986 expansion of DST from six to seven months, because each industry gained hundreds of millions in additional sales revenue each year.&rdquo;
Finally in 2005, seven months of DST became the current eight &mdash; &ldquo;driven,&rdquo; wrote Lincicome, &ldquo;by the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) and U.S. candymakers, each of which wanted Halloween to occur during DST because it boosted candy and, again, gasoline sales.&rdquo;
And while special interests prosper, Americans as a whole suffer.
&ldquo;The semiannual time change results in all sorts of maladies in the days thereafter,&rdquo; Lincicome wrote: &ldquo;car crashes and pedestrian deaths; workplace injuries; heart attacks and strokes; depression; and &lsquo;adverse medical events&rsquo; because of &lsquo;human error.&rsquo; (Mental note: Don&rsquo;t get hurt/sick on time-change weekends.)&rdquo;
In the final analysis, Lincicome concluded DST is &ldquo;an onerous state time mandate detrimental to public health and safety, manipulated by corporatists, supported by a handful of childless insomniac socialites and based on so-called &lsquo;science&rsquo; debunked decades ago.&rdquo;
<img src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5-new.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/bullet-5_2x-new.png 2x" alt="5" width="37" />Mailbag: China-Taiwan, Our Free Event
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" />&ldquo;Do you believe that in the near future President Trump will do a deal with Xi Jinping (bypassing the Taiwanese) to avoid war with the PLA over Taiwan?&rdquo; a reader inquires after <a href="https://paradigmpressroom.com/post/follow-up-chinas-tariff-wmd">last Thursday&rsquo;s edition</a>.
&ldquo;This would certainly save a lot of $$$ and U.S. lives and heck there are only around 24 million Taiwanese, who are indistinguishable from the Han Chinese on the mainland.
&ldquo;Would love your opinion. Keep up your scribbling.&rdquo;
Dave responds: It&rsquo;s conceivable &mdash; although I&rsquo;d hope that any &ldquo;grand bargain&rdquo; between Trump and Xi doesn&rsquo;t explicitly consign the Taiwanese to CCP rule.
At the same time &mdash; and as I expounded at length <a href="https://5minforecast.com/2023/05/23/no-blood-for-chips/">two years ago</a> &mdash; there&rsquo;s nothing about Taiwanese democracy that&rsquo;s worth risking war with a nuclear-armed mainland China. It&rsquo;s swell that Taiwan has enjoyed multiparty elections since 1996, but there&rsquo;s nothing about the freedom and prosperity of everyday Americans that hinges on it.
Unfortunately that&rsquo;s not the consensus inside the Beltway. Nor is it the consensus inside the Trump administration, loaded with China hawks itching for a confrontation.
<img class="infinity-bullet" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left.png" srcset="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/fmf-assets/Paradigm_Logomark_left_2x.png 2x" align="left" /> Last, a skeptical take on James Altucher&rsquo;s <a href="https://paradigmpressgroup.com/techturningpoint2025">Tech Turning Point 2025</a> event tomorrow.
&ldquo;Response to your &lsquo;free seminar&rsquo; with &lsquo;no gimmicks&rsquo;: Sorry but my experience says that you guys, like you say everyone else is, are all about making more and more money. I don&rsquo;t usually listen because I&rsquo;m tired of the &lsquo;fear of loss&rsquo; sales pitch at the end.&rdquo;
Dave: Really?
I mean, look, admittedly we do plenty of hard sell around here. That&rsquo;s the trade-off to our business model in which we&rsquo;re funded by the subscription revenue of readers like you &mdash; rather than by advertisers or payoffs from public companies.
We recognize that over time it can become a little tiresome &mdash; so that&rsquo;s why we aim to mix things up with events like this one. (Jim Rickards and his crew will be doing something similar toward the end of April.)
Tomorrow will be strictly two hours of you listening to James Altucher and a bunch of other smart people holding forth on AI, crypto, quantum computing and biotech. And it definitely won&rsquo;t be the same-old, same-old you get from CNBC.
Once more, <a href="https://paradigmpressgroup.com/techturningpoint2025">here&rsquo;s the agenda</a> for when everything gets underway tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. EDT. Hope you can be there!
Best regards,
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://media.paradigmpressgroup.com/signatures/dave-gonigam.png" alt="Dave Gonigam" width="250px" align="left" />
Dave Gonigam Managing editor, Paradigm Pressroom's 5 Bullets

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Paradigm AI authority James Altucher says THIS is the best way to read a rumor that hit the tech space last month… 

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